Five Times Zane Was a Nurse
by DietCokeIsLife
Summary: And, the one time he wasn't.
1. Kai

**I'M ALIIIIIIVE!**

**Hello, everyone! It's been forever! :D But, I am happy to announce that I am SO CLOSE to the end of school, and to celebrate, I decided to post the first chapter of Zane's Five Times! I've already written the first five chapters (but I am having a *little* trouble with Zane's, so any suggestions you guys want to throw my way would be greatly appreciated! ;D)**

**Also, with this story, I wanted to focus a little more on the later seasons, since I haven't really written anything past Season 7. So! These chapters will be in chronological order, with this one right after Season 7 :D (Future chapters will take place in later seasons, but I'll preface which season in case you are worried about spoilers ;D)**

**In other news, I am STILL going to finish replying to all the backlogged reviews from Forgotten Memory and Getting to Know You, AND I'm working on other stories as well! ;D**

**Lastly, TheYellowNinja: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your birthday review! Happy birthday to you too! This can be a sort of belated birthday present to you XD**

**So, without further ado: here's Kai!**

* * *

"I'm fine, Zane," Kai stubbornly insisted for the fourth time as he tried to shake off the nindroid's freezing cold hand currently pressed against his forehead. "Just because I'm feeling a little under the weather doesn't mean I'm dying."

The white ninja hummed disapprovingly but removed his hand. "Hm, no fever…" Zane tapped his chin as he continued studying his irritated brother in the foyer of the Airjitzu Temple. "What did you say your symptoms were again?"

"I just said my stomach hurts," Kai reminded his brother with an eyeroll. "It's probably just something I ate. Now, can I go lay down?"

Zane pressed his lips together in dissatisfaction. It was only a handful of weeks after the defeat of the Hands of Time, and between their relentless searches for Master Wu, Kai and Nya had decided to spend their weekends at their parents' blacksmith shop to catch up on the past thirteen years.

And yet, here Kai was, returning from the first trip on the same day because of this illness. Sometimes fate seemed particularly cruel to the ninja, and even something as small as taking away Kai's quality time with his newly rescued parents only rubbed salt into that wound.

At length, Zane answered with a sigh. "Of course. Would you like me to bring you anything? Some soup perhaps would settle your stomach."

"Thanks, Zane, but I'm good. I promise," Kai said, patting the nindroid on the shoulder as he walked past him toward the hallway.

"I am sorry that you could not spend the time with your parents that you wanted to," Zane said quickly. He couldn't help it; something in his chest _ached_ when his siblings hurt, and Kai, who had spent almost his entire life without his parents and had to go even longer without them now, was only bringing all the grief over his own father to the surface.

"It's _okay_, Zane," Kai reassured with his trademark grin. "I've got time."

"Yes," Zane agreed, though he couldn't help but recall the death of his father when they thought that all they'd had was time. "I will stop in to check on you later."

The white ninja laughed when his brother groaned and muttered something about a "mother hen," but Zane did not see how he was supposed to take that as an insult. He only hoped he could be as proficient as a hen in protecting his family as she was in protecting her chicks.

* * *

Kai was rather sluggish and without an appetite throughout the rest of Saturday. He seemed to recover on Sunday but had to excuse himself from the table while Nya was enthusiastically recounting the story of her weekend with the parents she was just getting to know. Zane hovered over Kai in order to be able to respond immediately should Kai collapse, vomit, or do a combination thereof; but Kai went to bed early without incident and by the next morning, he was completely better (though Zane made sure to ask for a status report every hour on the hour.)

After an arduous and fruitless week of searching for Wu, the strain of which showed in Lloyd's irritability, Jay's nervous chatter, and Cole's withdrawn nature, Kai and Nya left on Saturday morning to decompress at Four Weapons.

And, on Saturday afternoon, Kai returned alone.

Zane spotted him from a distance, rubbing his chest as if it hurt with a distinctly pained look on his face.

_Again?_ The nindroid thought, trying to wipe the perplexed look off his face as he rushed to meet Kai in the courtyard and help him inside. Maybe Kai wasn't as over this little bug as Zane thought he was?

Kai was in his pajamas, laying down in bed, a thermometer in his mouth and his feet elevated on a pillow in a record time of three and a half minutes.

"Still no fever…," Zane remarked after studying the thermometer. He had thought as much, but afraid that his internal sensors were busted, he figured he might as well confirm it.

"I said, I'm _fine_, Zane!" Kai protested with a huff. He tried to sit up in bed, but Zane was pushing him back down. "_Really_!"

Zane frowned, sitting on the edge of Kai's bed as he continued to stare down at the thermometer in consternation. "No fever, chest pains, stomach pain but no vomiting… I apologize, Kai, I am just having trouble diagnosing you."

"I don't need to be diagnosed!" Kai insisted, shaking his head against the pillow since his overbearing brother would not let him sit up to do so. "Sometimes, you just don't feel good!"

"Still, the chest pain concerns me," Zane commented, mostly ignoring Kai's argument, since he knew it was in the red ninja's nature to be as obstinate as possible, even when it went against his own wellbeing. "If it persists, we should go to the hospital."

"Well, it doesn't hurt anymore," Kai stated, crossing his arms. "And, I _definitely_ don't need to go to the hospital."

Zane sighed, sitting the thermometer on the nightstand beside the glass of water and bottle of ibuprofen that Kai claimed Zane had made magically "appear" there through the sheer power of brotherly love.

"Are you sure these are your only symptoms, Kai?" The white ninja asked, turning to look seriously at his ailing brother. "I cannot help you to the best of my ability unless you are completely honest with me."

For the first time, Kai seemed uncomfortable rather than recalcitrant, his eyes trailing to the side before coming back to rest on Zane. "I really don't think it's a big deal, Zane. Okay? I appreciate you taking care of me like this, but I'm fine."

Zane pondered this before cocking his head. "You know I do not mind whatsoever, Kai, but why did you not choose to stay at Four Weapons? I am sure your parents are eager for the chance to tend to you in this way."

After all, Zane overall had a pleasant association with repairs and tune-ups; his father had always made it a tender affair. A labor of love, not an inconvenience.

Kai offered a shrug, awkward as it was with his shoulders flat on the mattress. "My bed there is for a little kid. And, I don't want to screw up Nya's good time, you know?"

Zane continued looking down at Kai. He imagined that his bright blue eyes looked like twin lighthouses in the dim room, trying to lead Kai toward honesty, openness. Kai was not an abysmal liar, but it did not take a nindroid to see that there was more to that answer.

Still, Zane did not see it fit to push his patient. Standing up, he patted Kai gently on the chest. "Fair enough. Please do not hesitate to call me if you are in need of assistance."

"Okay, Zane," Kai replied rather quietly. It was like a lion meowing, and the incongruousness stuck Zane as equally concerning as the chest pains. "Thanks."

* * *

That was when the seed had been planted, but Zane continued to nurture it over the next week, watering it with Kai's avoidance of Nya, his hyper-focus on the search for Wu, his foul mood steadily growing more foul as the week went on.

The seed reached maturity, though, when, on Friday night, Kai announced that there was no way he could even attempt to travel to Four Weapons, as he constantly felt as if he was moments away from throwing up.

Once again, Zane bundled Kai into bed, going through the motions of taking his temperature and making sure his brother was comfortable, though at this point he was fairly sure he knew what Kai's diagnosis was.

"Maybe I'll be good enough to go tomorrow if I get a good night's sleep," Kai offered, pulling up his red comforter to his chest.

Zane nodded absently as he pulled out Kai's desk chair, turning it around to sit down in it so he was facing Kai.

"Kai," Zane addressed. Normally, he had no trouble finding the right words, but now, he felt somewhat lost, an actor without a script. "Do you know what the word psychosomatic means?"

"No…?" The red ninja responded, sitting up against his headboard. He had sensed the shift in mood. Zane was no longer his nurse, but Kai wasn't exactly sure _what_ Zane was at the moment. "What is it?"

Zane folded his hands together carefully on top of his crossed his legs. He was hoping to come across as non-confrontational as possible, since he knew Kai well enough to know that his defenses would pop up at the first hint of a threat. Zane considered himself more of a diplomat than a warrior, but he was well aware of what he might have to resort to.

"A psychosomatic illness is one that is brought about by mental causes rather than physical ones," Zane explained. "If one believes that they are sick, then they will actually start to _become_ sick."

Kai recoiled, a somewhat disgusted expression on his face. "What, and you think… that's what's happening to _me_?" He shook his head, trying to shake the accusation off like a dog shaking water off his fur. "You think I'm lying about being sick?"

"No, not at all," Zane responded calmly. "I think you are truly in pain. I was only suggesting that perhaps your illness is resulting from something aside from a bacterial or viral infection."

Kai crossed his arms, raising a defiant eyebrow. "You're not joking? This is a real thing that can happen to people?"

"I am quite serious," Zane rebutted. "After all, it is real to you, is it not?"

"Well, yeah, because I really _am_ sick," the red ninja insisted, sinking further into his bed. "Why on earth would I want to pretend to be sick?"

Zane resisted the urge to correct Kai yet again on the difference between a psychosomatic illness and "pretending" (and was unfortunately reminded of their brief stint as teachers, trying to impart the beauty of math and science to the insufferable former Darkley's students.)

"You tell me," he said instead. "I could not help but notice that this affliction appears to strike you every weekend-"

"_So_?"

"So, you are avoiding your parents," the nindroid stated unflinchingly. "But, I will admit that I do not know why."

"_Avoiding_ my parents?" Kai repeated incredulously. "Why the _heck_ would I do that? I've only spent, like, ten years looking for them."

"Kai, I only-"

"Look, Zane, thanks but just- can you just leave?"

Zane couldn't help but recoil at the sharp tone. Sure, he knew Kai was only lashing out because Zane was right, like a patient flinching away from a doctor when he had found the place that hurt the most. Still, it didn't stop it from stinging, just like he couldn't stop himself from feeling like a failure whenever he looked out over his students' faces to see everyone's eyes glazed over despite Cole's assurances that Zane was doing the best he could.

"Of course," Zane eventually said, coming across as polite as ever. He stood up. "Goodnight, Kai."

The red ninja didn't respond. He was still glaring at his comforter when Zane closed the door behind him.

* * *

Zane was sure the noise wouldn't have woken him up under normal circumstances, but he wasn't sleeping. Not physically needing to sleep made going to bed when your brother was mad at you that much harder for the nindroid, so Zane was already up, finding things to do to keep his hands busy. He was currently knitting sweaters for orphans, but once the sun was able to motivate itself to creep a little further up into the sky, Zane would begin preparations for a huge breakfast for his family.

He looked up when he heard the noise; someone was rifling around in the bathroom. That alone didn't arouse suspicion at first- after all, Jay was notorious for his nocturnal bathroom trips (and tripping over something on the way back to his room that caused a cacophony that would wake half the city)- but considering Kai's sickness and the fact that whoever was in the bathroom had not come out for close to twenty minutes prompted Zane to get up and check.

The light from behind the ajar door was spilling into the hallway. Zane tiptoed past Cole's room (briefly wondering how he could hear anything over the earth shaking snores) and tapped on the door. Though he had somewhat internalized the concept of "privacy," he still pushed the door open without waiting for verbal permission.

Kai was curled up into a ball beside the bathtub, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his stomach. His tan face was creased, little hills and valleys erected by his tense jaw, his eyes squeezed shut. He was very clearly in pain, and Zane was immediately struck with a reciprocal pain in his stomach.

He entered the room further when Kai didn't protest, and hesitantly sat on the floor beside his brother.

They were quiet for a minute. Several times, Zane reached out a hand to rest on Kai's shoulder, back, knee, _something_ to physically impart support, before retracting it again. This was one of the few times the red ninja seemed fragile, like iron that had suddenly become glass, and the nindroid did not want to break him.

Kai was the one who spoke first.

"This… this psycho semantic thing…," he said quietly, though his eyes were still squeezed shut. "You promise it's a real thing? It doesn't make me crazy?"

"Psychosomatic," Zane corrected automatically before wincing. Now was not the time for spell check. "Yes, it is a very real thing, and, no, it does not make you crazy at all. Stress can drive you to make yourself sick, Kai."

The red ninja sighed, opening his amber-brown eyes, though they stayed focused on his knees and not on Zane.

"It's just so… _stupid_," Kai admitted, running one hand through his unruly brunette spikes before replacing it around his stomach. "You know, I spend my entire life looking for my parents, and now I've finally _found_ them and… and now when I think about them, I feel like I'm going to throw up."

Kai went on before Zane could respond. "And-And, it's just so unfair you know, because Nya didn't even _care_ about finding them, but now she's catching up with them and getting to have the relationship with them she never had and she's so _happy_ and… And, I'm _glad_, but I want to feel that too, and I just… _don't_."

Zane nodded slowly, pondering this. "And, how do you feel when you're around them?"

"Like I said, sick," Kai answered. "I get this, like, pain in my chest, and I'm on edge like I want to _hit_ something and…"

The red ninja trailed off. He had just answered Zane's question, and they both knew it.

"It is alright to be angry with them, Kai," Zane said quietly, scooting a little bit- just a little bit- closer to his brother.

Kai huffed frustratedly, rubbing his sleeve against his eye even though he wasn't crying. "But, it's not their fault. I _know_ it's not their fault. I can't be mad at them for getting _kidnapped_."

"Yes, you can. You are allowed to feel whatever it is you are feeling," Zane said automatically, and it was the firmest his tone had been during the entire exchange. "You were abandoned in a way that Nya was not. That is not something that can be erased."

Finally, Kai looked at Zane, his jaw working as he attempted to maintain his hold on the reins of his emotions. "But… being mad at them's not going to fix it either."

Zane nodded. "No, but talking to your parents about how you are feeling might."

Kai looked scandalized at the notion of _talking_ about his _feelings. _"But, I can't… I don't want them to think…"

He huffed, pressing his hands into his eyes.

"Kai, I…," Zane faltered. He cursed himself; after all, he was the one telling Kai to open up, so he had to be willing to do the same. Then again, telling someone to move mountains was a lot easier than doing it yourself.

"I think I can relate to how you are feeling," he eventually forced out. It was as painful as pulling a shard of glass out of his skin, but just as much of a relief now that it was out. "It was… confusing, to say the least, to find my father in that lighthouse after so many years. It wasn't his fault that he was gone, and he did what he did to protect me… but it still hurts."

Zane swallowed. Yes. It still hurt.

Kai was looking back at Zane with that deep focus, that intensity so hot Zane could feel it burning him. Kai gave his whole self to his brothers, even when there was barely anything left to give, and Zane had never admired that trait in the red ninja more.

"But, I promise you," Zane continued, finally reaching out and placing his hand on Kai's shoulder. Kai was hot against the cool titanium of his hand- not feverish, but warm. Alive. _There_.

"Hating him is better than feeling nothing at all."

Day upon night upon day, wandering the Birchwood Forest. Drifting from place to place, testing himself as if that way he could _find _himself. Being thrown into Sensei Wu's crazy world of ninja and prophecies and snakes, and yet still not able to tell _what _was missing, let alone where it was.

Zane looked away, collecting himself. "Hatred is born from love," he stated, squeezing Kai's shoulder. "Only nothing is born from nothing."

He took a deep, shaky breath, but when he replaced his hands in his lap and smiled at Kai, it was steady. "In short, I think you should talk to your parents honestly. They will understand. But, only then will you be able to move forward and perhaps regain the relationship you lost."

Kai's eyes dropped to his knees once again. "But, what if we _can't_? What if it's always broken like this?"

Zane thought back to finding his father in that lighthouse. Everything he had seen and learned. More than he ever had in the treehouse. Met more people and felt new feelings that he'd never had the opportunity to. Asking his father to remove the memory switch and revealing, however subtly, the betrayal he felt that his father had ever installed it, let alone used it.

But, the way his father had hugged him on those steps of the lighthouse. The way he humble-bragged to Garmadon and Wu, saying "_my _son," "_my_ boy." The way they said goodbye a second time...

"It will be different, but it will not be broken."

The two brothers sat there on the bathroom floor for some time after that, Kai still curled up into a ball and Zane sitting in a proper cross-legged position, letting their minds wander down different paths.

Shaking his head, as if coming out of a reverie, Zane stood up, dusting off his pajama pants. "I think I will begin cooking breakfast."

It was said as an invitation without the invitation part, an offer without the "you can come with me if you want to" that Kai would definitely misconstrue as condescending.

Fortunately, he heard the invitation and accepted, unfolding stiffly- more like a living statue than a person- and followed Zane to the kitchen.

By the time the sun had risen, Kai had sitting in front of him a short stack of pancakes topped with every berry available and a generous helping of powdered sugar. The tines of his fork left little tire tracks in the snow.

Nya was the first to enter the kitchen. Her yawn got caught in her throat when her eyes landed on her brother at the kitchen table at the crack of dawn. Usually it was her nursing a cup of coffee at the table while Zane cooked and the rest of the house slept.

"Hey, Kai," she greeted. "Do you feel up to coming along today?"

Kai looked up from his pancakes. Glanced at Nya. Then at Zane. Then at Nya.

He snatched the bottle of syrup off the center of the table and emptied its entire contents onto his pancakes.

"Oh, yeah," he replied, a flicker of his trademark cocky grin peeking through as he cut into his pancakes. "I'm feeling _much _better."

Zane smiled from where he was minding his pancakes but didn't turn away from the stove.

* * *

Zane couldn't help but be jittery throughout the rest of the weekend, which was good news for the sweaterless children of the Ninjago City Orphanage, but bad for Zane's sanity. Part of him was dreading Kai's unexpected arrival with the excuse of his "illness." Part of him was terrified that he really _had_ misdiagnosed his brother, and Kai was currently collapsing because of some terminal illness that he hadn't-

But Saturday and Sunday passed along to the tune of knitting needles clacking together, and no Kai or Nya.

Until Sunday night, when they came back together, both teasing the other for losing a spar against their mother. The enthusiasm with which they described their weekend breathed a little bit of life back into the kitchen that had seemed mostly empty without Master Wu in it.

But, it wasn't until Kai caught him alone afterward that Zane knew really and truly that he was going to be okay.

"We all talked for a long time about… you know, everything," Kai said quietly. He kept the water running as he washed the dishes, as if afraid of spies overhearing. "And, it was good. It was… really, _really_ good."

"I am so happy for you, Kai," Zane exclaimed as he accepted the damp plate and slid it into the dishwasher.

Kai nodded. Without looking up from the soapy water filling the sink basin, he said, "So…, thanks, Zane. You always just… When I fell asleep on the couch and my dad threw a blanket over me, I could have sworn it was you at first."

He held out another moist bowl to Zane. "So, thanks for being that for me."

Zane accepted the bowl and held it between his two hands, pressing it against his chest for a moment despite the warm ring of water it left on his white gi.

"You-" Zane laughed a delighted little laugh as he secured the bowl in place in the rack. "You are very welcome, Kai."

* * *

**So, I really hope you guys liked it! Hopefully not everyone's forgotten me after being dormant for so long XD**

**Also, once again, if you guys have any ideas for Zane's chapter, feel free to let me know! :D**

**Next up is Nya ;D (Updates will be weekly for now, so expect the next chapter sometime next weekend :D)**

**I love you all! :3**


	2. Nya

**WOW! Here I was afraid everyone had forgotten me, and then you guys gift me with 32 reviews on one chapter! :D Thank you all SOOO much for your continued love and support! It really means the world to me!**

**This chapter also takes place after Season 7 and before Season 8 (but don't worry- next chapter, we'll start to get into later seasons ;D)**

**Also, shout out to KyraPlays for helping me develop this idea (and being such a big help in so many other ways too!) She is also the wonderful artist that made covers for Broken Circle, Forgotten Memory, Jay's Five Times, Cole's Five Times, Getting to Know You, and Morro's Five Times! :D Thank you so much, Kyra! :D**

**Special thanks to: agent. pebble, NaninaDaPanda, ninjaloser, RevlisCharm, FirstFandomFangirl, Katla1, KyraPlays, Nerdeology-000, CHEESEPUFF fg, RandomDragon2.0, WindNinja333, Peanut2196, StoriesAreMagic, GameCubeGirl1, MasterOfMusic139, Wolfwhisker Party Cat, Bookkeeper2004, Piggon, ****The-Aroace-Queen-in-the-Quiver, thefiresensei, JBomb12, SheaAndDove, SpiritDragon, Plumcicle, NinjagoFangurl7, TheYellowNinja, Mikey, spotsscat, Guest, The Titan's Shadow, FlightOfTheFury, and Guest for reviewing! :D**

**Replies to guest reviews: **

**JBomb12: Haha! The wait is FINALLY over! XD (Sorry it took so long XD) Yay, and I'm glad you liked the references to Zane's dad and the time they were teachers (I loved that so much XD) Ooh, great idea! Thank you so much for the suggestion and your lovely review! :D**

**SpiritDragon: Ooh, very interesting story, so thank you for sharing! That definitely sounds psychosomatic to me, and I've definitely experienced something similar before too! (Though mine was stress from school :/) Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**Plumcicle: Yay, I'm so glad you're enjoying the Five Times so far, especially if Zane is your favorite! Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**TheYellowNinja: Thank you for ALWAYS supporting me on every single story! That birthday review really meant a lot to me, so I hope my story could do the same for you! :D Yep, and as the chapters go on, we will get into the even later seasons! ;D If it wasn't obvious, I DEFINITELY wanted to see more of the aftermath of Kai finding his parents (instead of, you know, NEVER MENTIONING THEM AGAIN), because there is no way they could go back to being a normal family without some serious healing :3 Knowing that you always learn something from my writing is one of the BEST compliments I can think of! :D I researched it on the internet a little bit, but I've also gone through something similar before ^-^ And, YES, I definitely wanted to do a *little* bit of the unexpected with going a little bit outside of the "physical" ailment realm :D Thank you so much for this lovely, LOVELY review! :D**

**Mikey: "In love with my writing?!" Yay, I'm so happy! :D "Fit for canon!?" Okay, you are WAAAY too kind! ^-^ Thank you so so SO much for this wonderful review :D**

** spotsscat: Oh my goodness! Why on earth would you be NERVOUS about leaving a review that made my entire YEAR?! I am STOKED to know you enjoy my writing so much, and that scene with Gem and Morro was one of my favorites to write, so to know that it affected you so much... is just an INCREDIBLE feeling! Thank you so so SO much for considering me an amazing writer! :D Please don't ever feel nervous, because I am over the moon right now! :D**

**Guest: Aw, thank you so much! I'll try! XD**

**Guest: Ooh, great idea! I will definitely keep that in mind! Thank you sooo much for the suggestion and reviewing! :D**

* * *

Zane had never heard Nya scream like that. It cut him right to his core, sent a shiver of unease through every one of his circuits, flashed warnings across every one of his sensors. It was agonized. Primal.

All of the members of the team had heard the scream, but they were preoccupied with the burglars they had caught breaking into the Ninjago City Museum and attempting to escape with millions of dollars of artifacts. Although they were no match for the ninja with regard to combat skill, they were organized and well-armed, and the ninja were trying to defeat them without damaging any of the museum displays, which drew the fight out.

Kai and Jay in particular had been invigorated by Nya's scream, trying to dispatch their opponents quickly in order to get to her, but Zane was much closer. Slamming the burglar into a wall (carefully aimed so as to be between two priceless paintings), he rushed to Nya's side, signalling to the others that she would be taken care of.

"Nya!" He said urgently, placing a hand on her back. She was curled up in a ball on the floor, clutching her face. "What happened?! Where are you hurt?!"

"I can't- I _can't_-" Nya shook her head, her ponytail waving frantically back and forth. "I can't _see_…"

"Blinding powder!" Zane called over his shoulders to his brothers who were whittling down their opponents while covering their incapacitated teammates. "Watch out for their blinding powder!"

Turning back to Nya, he gently grasped her wrists, trying to coax her hands away from her face. "Let me see, Nya…"

Finally, he was able to pull her hands away, and she rested them uselessly in her lap. Zane tilted her chin upward so he could study her gray blue eyes.

They were bright red and irritated. The skin around them was puckered and red as well. Tears were streaming down her face of their own accord, her eyes futilely attempting to fix the problem.

But, most disturbingly, her eyes were staring straight ahead. They looked right _through_ Zane, past him at something he couldn't see. Nya alternated between blinking her eyes rapidly and squinting, as if that would clear away the curtain that had fallen over her vision.

"Zane," Nya choked out, reaching both hands forward and clutching his gi. "The others… Are they okay?"

The white ninja looked over his shoulder once again to see the rest of the ninja tying up the would-be burglars.

"Yes," he whispered, resting his hands on top of hers, squeezing all of his relief into her little, elegant fingers. It would take him quite a long time to get that scream out of his head, but at least his sister was still here to try to replace it, at least it was not the last thing he had ever heard from her. "Everyone is okay."

* * *

The five male ninja hopped to their feet the moment Nya reentered the waiting room with a nurse, her arm hooked in the crook of the nurse's elbow.

Her gray-blue eyes were blank.

"So?" Kai demanded, accosting the nurse as he grabbed Nya's arm and guided her to stand next to him.

"The doctor prescribed some eye drops," the nurse replied, shrinking under the red ninja's scrutiny.

"But, there's a chance it won't work," Nya spit. Zane noticed her clenching her fists. The prescription slip crinkled in her hand. "There's a chance I'll be blind forever."

"A small chance," the nurse reminded her optimistically. "Other than that, the doctor recommended lots of bed rest and fluids."

Nya didn't respond. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line, which signalled to the others that somebody was about to get chewed out.

"Thanks," Cole said by way of dismissal, and the nurse gratefully scurried away from the more than likely unruly patient.

"Nya," Jay said when they were alone, reaching for her hand. "I'm so glad you're o-"

"I'm not okay," Nya snapped, pulling her hand out of Jay's grasp. "How am I supposed to be a ninja if I'm blind?"

"Well, let's not jump to worst case scenarios," Lloyd suggested. "Let's just get you home for now and see what happens."

Kai moved to lead Nya out of the hospital… until she pulled away from him.

"I can walk on my own," she stated firmly, glaring at a spot on the wall to Kai's left.

"Nya, c'mon," Kai insisted. "It's no big-"

She was already walking away, stomping out of the waiting room as if it was _its_ fault this had happened to her. After bumping into chairs, the coffee table, a person, and the wall, which she shimmied along until she found the door, Nya had successfully found her away outside while the others watched in confusion.

"We should probably ensure that she does not walk into traffic," Zane suggested calmly.

This reanimated the ninja, and they rushed to catch up to Nya, forming a protective barrier around her without touching her, watching over her no matter how determined she was to go on her own.

* * *

The next morning, Zane turned the doorknob to Nya's bedroom as softly as possible. While there was a _strict_ knocking policy when it came to Nya's bedroom, Zane didn't want to wake her; only check to make sure her eyes weren't irritating her on his way to make breakfast.

Of course, he found then that he didn't have to worry about waking her. She wasn't there.

Zane scratched his head, frowning. The doctor had said _bedrest_, and yet Nya was up and about at six o'clock in the morning? Surely, she couldn't have gotten far in her condition.

After tiptoeing throughout the Airjitzu Temple, past Cole's earth shaking snores, Jay's sleep muttering, Lloyd's baby snores, and Kai's constant rustling, Zane found Nya outside in the courtyard.

Training.

With a sword.

"Nya!" He shouted admonishingly once he had firmly shut the door to the temple. She didn't jump, but she did pause in her drills, tilting her head to listen.

"What are you doing?" Zane demanded. As soon as he got close enough to her, he placed his hand on the hilt of the sword. He began to pull it away, but Nya's face only hardened as she tightened her grip on the weapon.

"It's all muscle memory, Zane," Nya reminded him with a huff, staring more at his neck than his face. He had taken notice of her pristine ponytail and tight, no nonsense knot in her belt. Those things were muscle memory, sure, but, still, Zane wondered how long she had struggled with those tasks- and how long she had been awake to do so. "I'm not going to hurt myself or anything."

"I am well aware of that," Zane confirmed, though he wasn't so sure he _was_ aware of that. Wu had told them from day one that weapons were not toys, and while Nya never had irresponsible intentions (like some of the other ninja), _this _was nothing but reckless. "Why are you not in bed? The doctor said you need rest."

"I can't just stop training," she reminded him, the edge of her tone cutting through his resolve like a hot knife through butter.

After all, he and Nya… got _along. _All of the other ninja had been caught on the wrong side of their firecracker sister before (except maybe Lloyd, because who didn't have a soft spot for the baby?), but he had always felt like he and Nya had a… mutual understanding. An exasperated love for the others' antics, but never abandoning reason, the gentle guiding light they were happy to carry for their more carefree brothers.

And, now… they were arguing.

And, it felt wrong.

"Do you want your eyes to heal or not?" Zane asked, unable to keep the frostiness out of his voice.

"They will or they won't," Nya snapped back, finally releasing the sword into Zane's grasp now that she knew the nindroid was not backing down. "I better start learning how to get along without them."

Before Zane could reply, she was sauntering back toward the temple, though carefully and with both arms held out in front of her. He watched long enough to ensure she got inside (and didn't wander off the edge of the floating island) before sighing and lowering his gaze to the sword.

How was he supposed to tell her now that she had put on two mismatched shoes?

* * *

Getting through the day was… hard.

Nya bit off the head of any one who dared mention her condition, and may the First Spinjitzu Master help them if they did so _sympathetically._ Nya seemed to want to move forward as if nothing at all had changed. She didn't want Zane's help getting around but preferred to move along the wall inch by inch to strengthen her mental map. She resented the soup Zane made for her in an attempt to give her something she could easily eat on her own.

It was as if she hoped that by not allowing anybody to talk about the elephant in the room, it would simply go away. Instead, it was only growing larger and larger, suffocating the rest of the ninja until they had to get away from her just to breathe.

Which was all but confirmed when Zane stumbled across Kai, Cole, and Jay hiding under the bridge just outside the Airjitzu Temple. Their eyes were ginormous, muscles poised to flee until they saw that it was only Zane.

"Did you come out here to get away from Nya too?" Cole asked, relaxing under the cool shade of the bridge once again.

Zane hesitated, averting his eyes. He did not want to admit to something so mean sounding, but he _had _needed to compose himself before entering into another power struggle with Nya over the amount of bedrest she needed.

"It's okay, Zane," Jay reassured miserably from where he was curled up next to Cole. "I want to help her, too! And, I know that this is an absolutely terrible thing that's happened to her, and I know she needs space to cope… But, it's like everything I do is _wrong _to her…"

"Yes!" Zane found himself agreeing emphatically, seating himself carefully upon one of the more dry rocks to preserve his pristine white gi. "She does not seem to realize that everything I do is for her own benefit! It is as if she purposely does the exact opposite of what I say in order to spite me! She is acting like… like…"

"A little sister?" Kai finished with a smirk.

Zane started, his mouth slack.

Kai laughed. "This is how she's always been, Zane. No matter what, she would never let me take care of her when she was sick. I basically had to force feed her."

Kai sighed, seriousness descending upon him and making him sink under its weight. "Look, the doctor said a few days for her eyes to heal, so we'll just have to do what we can for her until then. And if they don't heal… I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

* * *

Unfortunately, having to deal with _something_ came a lot sooner than any of them hoped. The ninja were lounging in the living room, "watching" TV (Nya had insisted on it, listening with a murderous expression on her face while the others sat stiffly as statues) when Lloyd rushed in.

"Guys, we gotta go. There's been a break in at Borg Tower."

All of the ninja hopped to their feet.

Which was to say, _all_ of the ninja hopped to their feet.

The male ninja shared an uneasy look while Nya stood there, determined as if she knew exactly what they were thinking but refused to acknowledge it.

"Nya." Lloyd, as leader, had to bite the bullet and say it. "I'm sorry, but you can't come."

"What?" The water ninja demanded. "Are you saying because I'm blind I can't be a ninja anymore?"

"Of course not," Lloyd replied without missing a beat. "But, you're not trained to fight blind. If Master Wu were here, he could teach you how to hone your other senses…," The Green Ninja shook his head. "But, either way, Nya, the doctor said you need _rest_."

Sounding firmer than he ever had when dealing with his big sister, Lloyd said, "You're not coming and that's final."

The others waited for the explosion, knowing that any soothing words would only increase the volatility, not contain the blast.

But, it didn't come. Nya huffed, clenching her fists, and walked toward the hall, her head held high. Her mental map was fairly clear at this point, and so the effect was not diminished by her walking into a wall or a corner.

Her bedroom door slammed behind her.

"You made the right decision, Lloyd," Zane reassured as soon as even a hint of dismay peeked out of Lloyd's features. "I will stay here with Nya in case she is in need of assistance or there is an emergency."

"Thanks, Zane!" The four ninja called over their shoulders on their way out. "You're a lifesaver!"

After the door shut and he could hear the Destiny's Bounty pulling away from the floating island, though, he wondered if he had spared his siblings only to die at the hands of the beast smoldering in her chambers.

* * *

Zane was sitting on the couch reading, and so he heard the crash easily enough.

Then, Nya cried out.

It wasn't the scream that had been torn out of her when she had been blinded- nothing would be as heart-wrenching or terrifying as a noise that should not emit from any human, let alone his invincible sister- but it was an echo of it, and Zane was already halfway down the hall before he remembered moving.

He pushed open the door to Nya's room, disobeying the knocking protocol for the second time in as many days.

Nya's bedside lamp was no longer a lamp but a circle of broken glass on the hardwood floor, the lamp shade lying dented a few feet away.

Nya herself was standing at the center of the wreckage, resting all her weight on her bare left foot while she held the right one gingerly, only the toes grazing the ground to keep her balance.

Blood dripped onto the floor from a cut in her foot.

"Nya," Zane said gently, moving farther into the room. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," she responded immediately, her sightless eyes staring straight ahead. She didn't turn toward his voice. Her entire body was rigid. Everything about her was screaming at him to go away.

But, maybe… maybe in those sightless eyes that she could not disguise, he could see what she really wanted him to hear. A whisper beneath the scream that was asking oh so quietly for help.

"I'm good," she reiterated breathlessly, hissing in pain when she put too much weight on her right foot. "I was just going to put my eye drops in when I stupidly knocked over the bottle and when I was looking for it, I stupidly knocked the lamp over and-"

"Nya," Zane repeated more softly. Unafraid of the glass that could not penetrate his titanium skeleton, he approached her with little crinkling footsteps, as if he were cracking ice beneath his feet. He grasped her upper arm so she would know exactly where he was. She gasped softly but didn't pull away.

"Let me help you," he pleaded. "Not because you are weak or stupid but because it hurts me to see you in pain. So, please, for my benefit, let me help you with this."

Nya bit her lip. She blinked heavily twice, before slowly, _slowly_, nodding.

Swinging her into his arms before she could change her mind, Zane transported her the step and a half to her bed in order to avoid collecting anymore broken glass in her feet. He left and returned with the first aid kit in a matter of moments, and then sat beside her on the bed, gently guiding her right foot into his lap so he could inspect it.

There was a medium sized piece of the aqua blue lamp sticking out of her foot. Zane could not manage to keep from making a noise of displeasure as he rummaged in the kit for the pair of tweezers.

"Why did you not just _ask _for help?" Zane demanded, unable to keep the rebuke out of his voice. Sure, he was normally level-headed and understanding, but Nya was _bleeding _with an inch long shard of glass in her foot as a direct result of her stubbornness.

"I was fine, Zane," she defended, even though it sounded weak to both of them. "I can hand-"

"No. Why will you not ask for help?" Zane repeated even more forcefully. "Why will you not let your family help you?"

Nya was quiet. Her eyes were still in her head, staring straight ahead at nothing, but Zane could see the thoughts passing over her face regardless in the scrunching of her nose, the working of her jaw.

Feeling guilty despite himself, Zane sighed before grasping the piece of glass with the tweezers.

"This will hurt momentarily," he warned before pulling the shard out. Nya gave a muffled shout of pain. Her eyes turned glassy.

Zane reached for the antiseptic next.

"Kai said that you would not even let him help you as a child," Zane continued, spraying the cut with hydrogen peroxide. Despite the size of the glass, the cut had been mostly superficial, so he figured wrapping the foot in gauze would be sufficient. "And, I wondered what could make such a small child so independent?"

He paused. He wanted to share a meaningful look with Nya, but he settled for squeezing her leg instead.

"Seeing a burden placed unfairly on someone you love very much," Zane answered his own question. "You did not want to add to Kai's burden when he had already been tasked with the responsibility of raising you. Am I wrong?"

Nya swallowed. "No," she replied at length, leaning heavily against the headboard as if she had tired herself out being so obstinate. "I just… I can't stand being useless. I can't stand forcing other people to take care of me."

"Forcing us?" Zane repeated incredulously as he wrapped layer after layer of gauze around her foot. "Nya, you are the farthest thing from useless that I can think of. And, just because you are injured does not mean that you suddenly have something to prove.

"As for 'forcing us…,'" Zane sighed exasperatedly. "We want to take care of you because that is what families do for each other. It is okay to not always be so strong, Nya. It is okay to let yourself be taken care of every once in a while."

When Nya didn't look convinced, Zane leaned forward, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "You are, and never will be, a burden."

"Even if I'm blind," Nya countered, crossing her arms. "Even if I can't be a ninja anymore."

"_If _this condition is permanent," Zane prefaced. "Then, you must let us _help_ you adapt. We will make adjustments. We will train you to fight without your eyes. We will get you a cane- or even a seeing eye dog!- and we will help you learn Braille and we will make it so you can distinguish every button on the Destiny's Bounty by touch. No matter what happens, we will change, and we will be okay.

"But, no one can go through this alone, Nya," Zane concluded. "If anybody could, it would be my firecracker little sister."

That earned a smile, and Zane internally cheered.

"But, the fact remains that you should not have to and you will not have to."

There was silence as Zane tied off the gauze.

Then, Nya started crying.

Zane started, raising his eyebrows. "I am sorry! Did I say something to upset you?"

"No! No," Nya wiped the corners of her eyes with the heels of her hands, sniffling. "Geez, I'm sorry, Zane. I don't even know why I'm crying."

The nindroid waited a moment, blinking, caught between whether he should await further explanation or begin to comfort his sister immediately.

Fortunately, Nya made the decision for him.

"I guess… I guess I just thought that if I didn't care about being blind… and acted like everything was the same… then it wouldn't matter," Nya continued, new tears replacing the ones she wiped away. "But… But, I want to _see_, Zane. And, I know it's not the end of the world, and… and everything you just said sounds wonderful, Zane, really, but… but just the thought of not being able to see Jay's face all lit up after I kiss him ever again…"

Zane stood up, crunching some glass beneath his feet as he moved to the head of the bed. He grasped both of Nya's shoulders and crushed her against his chest.

"It _is _sad, Nya. It is okay to be scared," he reassured softly. "It is more than okay to grieve."

* * *

The other ninja were more than shocked to see Nya, holding onto Zane's arm, greet them amicably once they got home.

"How was the mission?" She asked cheerfully.

Four pairs of eyes darted to Zane in search of an explanation (or perhaps a warning if this was a trap or not), but the nindroid only smiled knowingly in the infuriating way of his that the others hated.

"Good," Jay answered at length, approaching his girlfriend as if she was a rattlesnake poised to strike despite her chipper demeanor. "How are... you?"

The other ninja thought Jay had just scathingly insulted Nya by the way they braced for impact.

But, Nya only stepped forward- unevenly, since her right foot still hurt- passing from Zane's grasp into Jay's arms.

The blue ninja caught her. Cautious, but tight.

"I'm okay," she finally replied, resting her head against his shoulder. "I'm… great, Jay."

Once again, the other four ninja looked wide-eyed at Zane, demanding to know what kind of sorcery he had enchanted Nya with.

But, the nindroid only smiled, walking away with a shrug that was impossible to decipher.

* * *

The next morning, Nya let Zane inspect her eyes with a little handheld flashlight any optometrist would envy.

And, she could notice the difference. Could distinguish dark from light, could even recognize shapes that highly contrasted with their background.

She was healing. Slowly, her brothers' faces came back into focus. Slowly, Jay's bright blue eyes pierced the haze, and slowly, she could see his individual freckles bunched up with pleasure every time she entered the room.

Slowly, she walked out of the doctor's office with the announcement that she would make a full recovery.

But, quickly, she hugged Zane around the neck like she was trying to catch herself when falling, like he was the only thing holding her up.

"Thank you for helping me see."

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed watching Zane and Nya's little seen power struggle going on XD I certainly had a lot of fun writing it! :D**

**Next week is Jay! :D**

**Thank you to everyone who's reading and reviewing! I love ALL of you, and never forget that! :D**


	3. Jay

**Hello, everyone! I have GREAT news! I am OFFICIALLY done with school! WOOOOOHOOOOO! ALSO, I was SUPER inspired, and I wrote Zane's chapter of this Five Times, which I actually like a LOT, so thanks to all of you that wrote suggestions and just general encouragement! :D**

**This chapter takes place directly after Season 8, and it is a bit of an alternate, more serious take on how our OG ninja react after finding themselves where they are. MAJOR spoilers if you have not seen Season 8 yet!**

**Special thanks to: trixiehollister, Gwen Brightly, NaninaDaPanda, StoriesAreMagic, GameCubeGirl1, Nerdeology-000, Katla1, Bookkeeper2004, ****The-Aroace-Queen-in-the-Quiver , CHEESEPUFF fg, ninjaturtlefinatic, Piggon, ninjaloser, MasterOfMusic139, Peanut2196, SheaAndDove, naoninja, RandomDragon2.0, KyraPlays, ArancaMasterOfElves, JBomb12, SpiritDragon, TheYellowNinja, FlightOfTheFury, WindNinja333, A Huge Fangirl, Guest, and thefiresensei for reviewing! I will be replying to reviews and other PMs after posting this! :D**

**Replies to guest reviews:**

**JBomb12: YES! That is EXACTLY the goal of these Five Times: to capitalize on relationships that are not fleshed out that much in the show! It's really fun writing interactions we don't see as much and seeing where it takes me! ^-^ Aw, and I'm so glad you liked the little bit of Jaya I slipped in there! We all know Nya is the less explicitly affectionate one in the relationship, but she really does love Jay :3 Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

** SpiritDragon: I totally understand, and I really enjoyed exploring that kind of mindset to write that chapter! No matter what, I think it would be a huge and upsetting adjustment to go from seeing to blind so suddenly, *but* with the right support system like Nya has, we know she would have been okay :3 Yay! Writing the characters in character is VERY VERY VERY important to me, so I am EXTREMELY glad you think so! :D WOW, and my stories are on par with the show?! That really means a lot! Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**TheYellowNinja: Yay! It is so rewarding to make one of my most loyal supporters so happy! :D YES! I think if I was suddenly struck with a disability, one of the things I would struggle most with is definitely suddenly needing to depend on other people so much, and I thought that was a really interesting angle to approach Nya's chapter from, since, like you said, she is SO SO SO independent (yay, I'm so glad you like my description of her as a firecracker XD I thought it was fitting) :D We don't see a ton of Zane/Nya interaction in the show, but as they are some of the more responsible ninja, I thought they'd get along pretty well XD Zane is the perfect saint to help anybody, and I think he is DEFINITELY a sorcerer of some kind XD I'm so glad you liked the little bit of comic relief inserted here and there XD I like to imagine all of the rest of the ninja are scared of Nya on some level XD And, I think you're exactly right: everyone could use the reminder that it's okay to depend on others, especially me :D Thank you SO MUCH for reviewing! :D**

**Guest: Haha, I'm so glad you thought it was cute! (That's a major goal for these Five Times XD) Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

* * *

"_WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"_

"Can't you make him stop crying?!" Kai demanded, both hands clamped over his ears.

"Yeah, I can, I just decided not to," Cole snapped back sarcastically as he soothingly pat the back of toddler Wu currently sobbing against his chest.

Kai narrowed his eyes, looking ready to tackle Cole, baby or no baby. Zane quickly stepped between his two brothers, grabbing their shoulders in either hand and pushing them away from each other.

"We mustn't fight," Zane struggled to say calmly over the wailing of Wu. "Not now when we must depend on each other most."

Kai and Cole shared a glare for only a moment longer before simultaneously deflating. After finding themselves shipwrecked in the First Realm and having the weight of what that meant slowly crush them as the sun set, plunging their drafty little shelter into steadily growing darkness, no one had the energy to sustain conflict.

"I'll walk with him," Cole offered, gesturing at the still weeping Wu. Despite the seemingly timeless wisdom of the child, his bodily limitations couldn't help but remind him that he was tired, hungry, and scared, and no amount of reassurance from any of the ninja seemed to be able to assuage that. "See if I can get him to fall asleep."

"Yeah, and I'll… go look for some firewood, I guess," Kai suggested, sullenly shoving his hands into his pockets.

Zane nodded, agreeing to both of these endeavors despite the uselessness of the latter. They had all seen this place. It was as barren as the Sea of Sand despite the ocean lying just outside their mangled ship. The only firewood they would be able to find would be from the Destiny's Bounty itself. And once they had utilized all of that, what would they have left?

But, the reason Zane agreed was that he wanted time alone with Jay. Although they had spent the last few hours digging out the essential supplies they could find- food stores to last them no more than a week, a few blankets, some mangled remains of technology that Zane was sure they could cannibalize into something useful even if he was too exhausted to figure out what yet- the blue ninja was still pawing through the sand at the base of the hull of the Destiny's Bounty. It was as if he believed that if he recovered every single splinter of their ship, it would somehow be enough to rebuild it, to somehow, some way get them home.

Cole and Kai both loped out from under the cover of the now mostly hollow Destiny's Bounty, and Zane couldn't help but breathe a deep sigh of relief as Wu's cries became quieter and quieter as Cole got farther and farther away.

Then, steeling himself for the little he could do- _what else could he _do_?_\- he ambled over to Jay, placing his hand with fingers splayed on Jay's back.

"Jay," Zane said softly as the blue ninja kept digging, digging, digging through the sand, only for more to replace it. It was sand, sand, sand, and absolutely nothing else.

"Jay," Zane said a little more firmly, attempting to shake Jay out of his haunting digging, trying to get the _scritching_ of clawing at sand out of his ears even more urgently than he had wanted Wu's crying to stop. At least crying was a sign of life in an infant; this only reminded the nindroid of digging a grave. "Please stop."

"It's gotta be here," Jay muttered without ceasing the infinite excavation. "It's gotta be here…"

"What, Jay?" Zane asked gently, moving to sit down beside the blue ninja. Jay was brilliant… but emotionally fragile. Getting stranded in another realm was not going to be easy on any of them, but he was most worried about his soft, innocent little brother. "What are you trying to find?"

"The… the…," Jay gestured noncommittally, a jerky hand wave, and Zane found it terrifying that his normally voluble brother was losing words. "I-I was going to ask Nya to be my yang. I've had it forever, I've had it ever since we got back together, and I was going to ask her, I was going to _ask_ her, and-and it's gotta be here, it's _gotta _be here-"

Zane nodded with understanding, though he was mildly surprised that Jay was going to overcome his self-consciousness in order to take such a big step in his relationship with Nya. He was searching for the emblem that would seal their relationship. "Do not worry, Jay. You can get another one once we return home."

The white ninja knew instantly that that was not the right thing to say.

"But, what if we don't get back?" Jay demanded, his voice achieving a certain pitch reserved for hysteria. "There's no way back, there's no way to get back, we're- we're…"

He turned back to the sand with new renewed vigor, tossing handfuls of it aside. "_It's gotta be here_!"

"Jay. Jay!" Zane demanded. He dodged sand projectiles as he attempted to reach out to his brother once again. "Jay, we must remain calm-"

"We're going to _die_ here, Zane!" Jay shouted. He ripped himself away from the sand, stumbling to his feet. He paced quickly, tripping as his feet sank into the sand, and tossed his arms frantically. "We can't go home- my parents, Lloyd, _Nya_… I never got to- I- didn't- I- I-"

Zane sprang to his feet. Jay was beginning to hyperventilate, leaning heavily to the side and reaching out to grab onto something as if he were dizzy.

"Jay, you are having a panic attack, you must-"

The blue ninja collapsed to his knees. He bent so his forehead touched the ground, wrapping both arms around his stomach as if he was going to throw up, his breathing somehow picking up if that was even possible.

"Jay," Zane said yet again as he kneeled beside his brother, laying a steadying hand on his back in order to imbue support.

They sat there together like that, waiting for the attack to pass. Zane couldn't stand the sound of Jay's breath rasping through his throat, hated the back jerking spasmodically under his hand, the way his brother was shaking like he was cold without a single thing Zane could do to make him warm.

After an eternity, Jay's breathing slowed. That was the only sign that the attack had passed, though. His heart was still pounding. Sweat stuck his gi to his back even as he shivered with cold.

"Jay," Zane addressed. The blue ninja didn't look up, only shook his head against the sand frantically. "Jay, please look at me."

When the lightning ninja refused to move, Zane stood up and moved to sit behind Jay instead of beside him, his back pressed against the wall of the Bounty. He gently grasped Jay's shoulders, guiding him out of his prostrated position and instead pulling his brother so his back was pressed against Zane's chest, wrapping his arms tightly around Jay's middle. He knew Jay wanted to feel safe, knew Jay revelled in physical touch, and he could only hope the gentle rise and fall of Zane's chest would help his brother regulate his own breathing. Perhaps the pulsing of his power source would serve to act as a calming rhythm, a beat that would recall Jay's mind back from whatever darkness it had wandered into.

Jay obediently slumped against Zane's chest, limp and completely compliant.

"Jay," Zane murmured soothingly. "Can you hear me?"

The blue ninja didn't respond. Glancing down, Zane saw his blue eyes staring blankly ahead from where his head was resting in the hollow of Zane's shoulder.

The white ninja cursed the little wifi signal in his head that informed that he could not connect to the internet. He wished he could search for how to help Jay. At least if Pixal was still inside his head, she could give him advice, since she knew everything about everything.

_Pixal…_

No. Had to help Jay. Couldn't think about anything else now.

Even without the internet, Zane's rudimentary first aid knowledge and the minimal research he had done on anxiety in preparation for a situation like this suggested that he needed to ground Jay, needed to remind him that he was here in the material world, not in the swirling currents of his panicked thoughts.

Getting an idea, Zane cupped his hands. He focused on the power that constantly pulsed in his veins, the part of him that was always, always _alive_, and let it free. A ball of ice formed in the palm of his hand, really more of an extension of himself than a creation.

He took Jay's pliant hand and pressed the ice into it. His brother shivered but obediently held it.

"What does it feel like, brother?" Zane asked, squeezing Jay to try to bring him back here. "Tell me what it feels like."

A whimper sounded in the back of Jay's throat, and it vibrated there momentarily against Zane's shoulder. But, finally, as if forcibly wrenching his voice out of his chest, he said quietly, "Cold."

Squeezing it between his hands, running his fingers over it, he added, "Hard."

"Good," Zane complimented with a gradually growing grin on his face. "Very good, Jay."

He let his brother roll the shrinking ball of ice between his hands until it melted. Water left swirling, criss-crossing trails on the inside of his hands, and when that was all that was left, Jay looked down, as if wondering where the ice went.

Droplets appeared on Jay's blue gi, darkening it almost to black in places. He breathed a ragged, gasp of breath before letting it out in an equally as pained sob.

"I never got to say goodbye…," Jay cried, wiping his tears with the back of his sleeve. "I never got to ask her to be my yang. I never got to tell her I love her."

"She knew," Zane reassured. He wished he could physically draw the pain out of Jay, as easily as he had called forth the ice from inside his veins. Instead, he remained the rock at Jay's back. Sturdy and unmoving and _there_. "She _knows_. We will get home, Jay."

"How can you _say_ that?" Jay demanded, shuddering under the intensity of his sobs, but Zane held him fast. "There _is_ no way back."

Zane mulled this over in his mind. He did not doubt it, not for a second, but why not?

"Mystaké sent us here," he stated. His voice did not waver. "Master Wu sent us here. We could not defeat Garmadon as we were, and they sent us here for a _reason_. We will discover that reason, we will get home, and we will see Nya and Lloyd and Pixal again.

"But, we must remain strong until then," Zane said, hugging Jay against his chest. Each and every sob was like a punch to the nindroid's gut, and suddenly it seemed so terribly unfair that the world they risked everything to protect tore them apart like this...

No. If he was telling Jay to be strong, then he couldn't break down either, not now.

"We have each other," Zane said. But, his voice caught. It was too thin, too strained, too hurt and scared and broken.

So, he said it again. "We have each other."

And, he said it again. "We have each other."

He said it like Pixal's soulmate, like Master Wu's student, like Ninjago's hero, like his father's son, like the brother of those he had left behind and the brother of those that were still here.

They were still here.

"We have each other."

Jay's breathing slowed. He wiped the tear tracks off his face but stayed leaning against Zane. The white ninja didn't feel constricted with the weight against his chest but safe. Maybe he had managed to take the pain out of Jay, but instead of taking it upon himself, it had been swallowed by this barren landscape, leaving the two of them untouched in the middle of it.

The peace did not last long, though. They heard it like a mosquito buzzing at first, but then the sound got closer and closer until they recognized it as Wu crying.

Without preamble, Jay pushed himself to his feet, and, curious, Zane followed. The two ninja moved to stand in the threshold of the Destiny's Bounty- or, rather, the gaping hole where the rest of the ship had been ripped off. They saw the two shadowy figures trudging closer: Cole exhaustedly lugging the somehow more miserable toddler while Kai, returning from his obviously fruitless search for firewood, dragged himself along behind them.

"Sorry," Cole said once they were close enough to hear, rubbing the hand that was not holding Wu over his face. "I couldn't get him to stop crying. I don't know what else to do."

"Hey, Sensei," Jay greeted, touching the baby on the back.

Wu, one hand still clutching Cole's gi in a death grip, turned to look at the person who had addressed him. He rubbed his eye with his other tiny fist. He sniffed pathetically and cutely, but it was clear that his lungs were still capable of releasing another scream if he did not like what he heard.

"How do you know if a snake is a baby?" Jay asked.

"It has a rattle."

As Zane, Cole, and Kai all gaped at each other in confusion, silently asking one another if Jay had lost his mind…

Wu laughed.

Cole recoiled, staring down at the baby in his arms in shock. But, there Wu was, laughing with the unbridled joy of a child.

Jay laughed because Wu was laughing, freckles scrunching together as he smiled for the first time since waking up in this realm. Immediately, a weight melted off of Zane. The sound was reverberating throughout the barren landscape, filling the emptiness with their presence. No matter how much the world tried to crush them out of existence, they were still here. They were still here.

"And-and, how do you get an astronaut's baby to sleep?" Jay asked next. Maybe once they realized they were going to have a toddler around, the blue ninja had researched jokes about babies? "You rocket."

Wu squealed with absolute delight, and this time, no matter how cheesy and terrible Jay's jokes were, the others couldn't but help join in. Zane wondered if perhaps Wu, despite his infantile state, had been able to sense Jay's distress and that's why he had been crying. Even now, he was still with them, watching out for them. With the rate at which he was growing, their sensei would be with them again soon, and with his guidance, Zane knew there was no way they _wouldn't_ get home.

But, for now, they were still here together with each other, with Jay making them laugh because Zane stopped him from crying, and Nya and Lloyd and Pixal didn't seem quite so far away.

* * *

**So, a bit shorter than the others, but I like how it turned out! :3 I really hope you guys enjoyed it! :D**

**Next is Lloyd! :D**


	4. Lloyd

**Hello, everyone! I just want to thank everyone a million times over for all the support this story has already gotten only halfway through! I will be replying to reviews shortly after this, but know that I appreciate you all more than I can express! :D**

**WARNING! There is underage drinking and alcohol use in this chapter. Please be aware of the content before you read.**

**This chapter takes place shortly after the end of Season 9 :D So, MAJOR spoilers if you haven't seen it yet :D**

**Special thanks to: SheaAndDove, ninjaturtlefinatic, trixiehollister, LucariosFish, NaninaDaPanda, Katla1, RandomDragon2.0, Bookkeeper2004, Peanut2196, ****The-Aroace-Queen-in-the-Quiver, Nerdeology-000, GameCubeGirl1, Plumcicle, MasterOfMusic139, ninjaloser, KyraPlays, StoriesAreMagic, SpiritDragon, JBomb12, TheYellowNinja, PrismaPup7, WindNinja333, and Piggon**** for reviewing! I love all of you! :D**

**Replies to guest reviews:**

**SpiritDragon: Believe me, I've definitely broken down from stress before (not sure if it passed into an "official" panic attack, but probably o-O) And, Jay (with Zane's help) finally realizes that despair will get them nowhere :D (I love that scene where they're explaining to Wu why they tell jokes even in the most grim times :3) I think it's definitely good to have people that balance each other out, and I think the ninja are a pretty good example of that :3 Thank you so much for reviewing! :D  
**

**JBomb12: You should know I LOOOVE wrenching people's hearts by now! XD I'm so glad you liked this chapter so much! Zane is such a good brother and I thought the perfect one to calm Jay down :3 And, then of course Jay is the little jokester we know and love! (And I couldn't resist throwing in some baby Wu XD) Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**TheYellowNinja: Ooh, good luck with your finals! Don't stress! You are going to be fine :D Ah, I'm glad you asked about Season 9 ;D Yeah, it was a pretty bad situation. I don't see how they ALL didn't lose their minds :/ Zane, I think, would definitely be the rock in the situation, BUT he is also hurting in his own way ;-; (I love him and Pixal, so I couldn't resist :3) Right?! Baby Wu is SUCH an enigma XD As a baby he's all wise, and then as a kid/teenager, he's lost all his memories XD Thank you so much for reviewing! PLEASE don't have a breakdown over school! No matter what happens, I promise it will be okay :D (Also, good news! I started watching Voltron! (You thought I forgot didn't you? XD) I LOOOOVE it so far, but I'm only on Season 2, so no spoilers :D)**

**PrismaPup7: Poor Jay indeed! ;-; I definitely felt like he'd struggle the most with being stranded in the First Realm (which I guess we saw through his mental breakdown XD) But, at least Zane is there for him! :D Thank you so much for reviewing! :D **

* * *

Zane knew instantly that something was wrong when Dareth called him.

Considering the ninja's non-face to face communication with their "manager" usually consisted of Dareth texting them antiquated slang (_"wut *upward arrow emoji*, homies?!"_) or random and usually irrelevant memes, the phone call at 11 o'clock at night was particularly alarming.

"Hello?" Zane answered, already slipping his shoes on. After all, if Dareth had gotten stuck in the bathtub yet again, time was certainly of the essence.

"_Um, Zane?"_ Dareth replied. The nindroid covered his opposite ear even though his room was already silent in an effort to discern Dareth's voice amongst all the background noise. "_Look, don't… hate me. Lloyd came into Laffy's a few hours ago, and, you know, I gave him some boba- on the house, of course- and then I went about managing my business. Now, I have no idea how this happened, but he seems to have… gotten his hands on… some of my more… _alcoholic_ products…_"

Zane was already up and out of his bedroom in the partially rebuilt monastery and scrawling a hasty note that he stuck to the fridge to inform the others should they wonder his whereabouts.

"You allowed a sixteen year old to become intoxicated on the premises?" Zane clarified reproachfully. All at once, he felt like a mother putting her child in time out: obligated in a sense to punish in order to teach but still guilty for reprimanding an innocent and oblivious creature. "I do not mean to be harsh, Dareth, but that is a serious transgression. You could lose your liquor license."

"_I know, I know, but, Zane, buddy, I'm more worried about Lloyd at the moment," _Dareth replied, and the ice ninja was immediately warmed inside by their bumbling manager's pure intentions. "_He's doing karaoke and… I think people are about to start throwing chairs."_

"I am on my way to retrieve him," Zane reassured, heart starting to beat a little bit faster, and not just from the exertion of jogging down the monastery steps. "How inebriated is Lloyd?"

"_Ah, he's…,"_ Dareth sighed, as if the perfect lie had evaded him just before crossing the threshold of his mouth. "_He's _wasted,_ Zane."_

Before Zane could ask how drunk "wasted" was on a scale from one to ten, there was a sudden jostling on the other end of the call, and Dareth yelling, "_Hey! Put that chair down! I said- look, IgottagoZanebyeputthechair_down-"

The white ninja blinked as he heard the telltale beeps signaling that Dareth had hung up.

He started taking the steps two at a time.

* * *

By the time Zane had taken one step into Laffy's, he had already located Lloyd. Dareth had apparently coaxed him off the stage; his baby brother was at the very end of the bar, his head on top of his crossed arms, his hood hastily pulled over his golden blonde hair as if that would block out all of the ambient noise and light. (Or maybe Dareth telling him to stop singing karaoke had hurt his feelings.)

Dareth from behind the counter waved to get Zane's attention and pointed silently at the casually dressed Green Ninja. Nodding, Zane approached Lloyd's stool, carefully placing his hand on his brother's back so as not to startle him.

Lloyd jumped regardless, lifting his head off the counter, blinking rapidly as he attempted to focus his dilated eyes on Zane.

"Zane!" He greeted excitedly. "Zane! Dareth, look! It's Zane!"

Zane crinkled his nose. Lloyd's breath _reeked_ of alcohol. "Wasted" on a scale from one to ten was definitely a ten.

"Yeah, I see, buddy," Dareth replied, smiling gently at Lloyd despite himself. "He's going to take you home now, alright?"

"What?" Lloyd straightened, as if he had never heard more appalling news in his life. "_What?_ Zane, tha's not true, right?"

"Unfortunately, it is, brother," Zane replied honestly, grasping Lloyd's upper arm in an attempt to urge him off the stool. "I think you will be much more comfortable in your bed at home, do you not?"

"No," Lloyd whined, using both hands to grasp the edge of the counter. "No! _I_…"

The Green Ninja trailed off as if he had forgotten what he was going to say, and then began again, grasping the counter with renewed vigor. "_I!_ Am not going anywhere. I'm not goin'...," Lloyd hiccuped. "Anywhere."

Zane pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed a long overdue sigh. "Lloyd, please. You will make this easier on the both of us if you-"

Lloyd gasped. "Look!" Apparently forgetting his vow to keep both hands in a death grip on the counter, Lloyd belatedly pointed at the TV screen in the corner of the bar.

He hiccuped again. "A girl!"

Zane pulled encouragingly on Lloyd's arm, and the Green Ninja stumbled off of the bar stool, listing from side to side like a sinking ship. "I see," Zane replied distractedly, even though he hadn't.

"Girls're pretty."

"Yes, I know," Zane said with a slightly more indulgent tone, humoring his baby brother as he negotiated the uncoordinated body through the sea of non-pushed in chairs and similarly indisposed patrons.

"Girls're trash."

"Yes, I- wait, what?"

Unfortunately, Zane couldn't get an answer to his question right away, as Lloyd had taken it upon himself to pull the door for the two of them… even though it was a push door.

Shaking his head in exasperated amusement, Zane turned to give Dareth a little wave over his shoulder. The "brown ninja" raised his hand in a reciprocal goodbye- until his eyes suddenly widened and he started pointing frantically behind Zane.

The white ninja turned-

And immediately he snatched Lloyd's glowing green fist that was about to blast open the stubborn door.

"Lloyd!" Zane reprimanded, as if he had just caught his child about to place their hand on a hot stove. Lloyd looked at him like one too, a toddler that had just been yelled at by the permissive parent: shocked and betrayed.

Zane pushed open the door- _like a sane person_\- and pulled Lloyd out onto the sidewalk, where the cool night air immediately rustled their hair.

The Green Ninja yanked his arm out of Zane's grip, turning his back on the white ninja and crossing his arms.

The nindroid sighed. "Lloyd, let's-"

"No!" Lloyd tucked his chin against his chest.

"You _yelled_ at me."

He knew Lloyd was being ridiculous, but Zane couldn't help the twinge of guilt in his chest. "I am sorry, Lloyd." He went to rub the Green Ninja's back soothingly. "I did not mean-"

"Leggo!" Lloyd snapped, jerking his shoulder away from Zane's hand. "I'm not _leavin_'."

Now more frustrated than regretful, Zane went to grasp Lloyd's elbow yet again. "Lloyd-"

"No!" Lloyd screamed, dancing out of his brother's reach as if his hand was on fire. "No, no, no-"

Zane's eyes widened as he saw Lloyd stumbling in a zigzag away from him. "Lloyd, stop, you will-"

Lloyd pinwheeled his arms as he fell, crashing into a pair of garbage cans at the mouth of the alley.

"-fall," Zane finished with a wince.

Kneeling beside Lloyd, he gingerly helped his brother into a sitting position between the two overturned cans, wincing once again when he saw the cut stretching from the bottom of Lloyd's chin to his bottom lip.

The white ninja clucked his tongue, reaching for the tissues he always had handy. He dabbed Lloyd's bloody mouth as gently as possible while the Green Ninja sat there amongst the garbage, a positively miserable expression on his face.

"Why doesn't anybody _like_ me?"

Zane paused with his napkin pressed to Lloyd's chin, blinking at his brother's huge, glistening green eyes.

"What do you mean, Lloyd?" The white ninja asked, resuming his gentle dabbing. "Everybody loves you."

"Not Harumi."

Zane sat back on his feet, his mouth an "o" of realization.

Although they had all known how much Lloyd had cared for Harumi- his trusting baby brother placing his whole heart into her hands only for her to rip it up and and stomp on it- but it wasn't until they had defeated Garmadon three days ago that the four original ninja had learned of her fate.

And, though all of the ninja had imagined a much worse fate for her on numerous occasions, he had never wanted his baby brother to witness his first love die in such a gruesome way. There had been no memorial for the princess of Ninjago.

Lloyd had been morose since the party celebrating their victory had ended, laconic and solitary. Really Zane should've figured out the reason for this little outburst sooner.

"Harumi… had ulterior motives, Lloyd. What she did to you says much more about her character than it does about yours," Zane explained, standing up. He righted the trash cans and collected the wayward garbage, and focusing on that action was the only thing keeping him from verbally bashing the late Princess Harumi.

Lloyd stayed sitting forlornly on the sidewalk like a kicked puppy. Zane was in shock that anybody had ever looked at a face as good and innocent as that and done anything but love him.

Finally, Zane bent down and grasped Lloyd's wrist, helping his brother to his feet. They were definitely going to have a longer conversation about this in the morning, but at the moment, Zane only wanted to get Lloyd home safe.

The Green Ninja took a step-

And doubled over, vomiting _beside_ the garbage can.

He put out one hand to lean on whatever was nearby- which was the poor, battered garbage can. Lloyd leaned too heavily on it, and it clattered to the ground yet again with a glorious crash.

It was all Zane could do to lunge in time to catch Lloyd before he fell face first into his own vomit.

"Lloyd," Zane grunted, struggling to hold his brother up. The Green Ninja had gone completely limp, and Zane was struggling to get a good grip on him. "Lloyd, are you-"

He managed to get his arms under Lloyd's, hugging his much shorter brother around the waist-

And, Lloyd wound both his arms around Zane's body and began to cry.

"It-it-it-h-h-_hurts_…," Lloyd sobbed, pressing his bloody, dirty face into Zane's white shirt. "It _huuuuurts._ How do you make it stop hurting?"

Zane swallowed the lump in his throat, but he pulled his brother tighter against his chest. "Lloyd, we need to get you home. We…"

The white ninja trailed off as he realized that Lloyd had all but checked out. He was crying with no regard for who saw him, when usually Lloyd was one of the most self-conscious about his emotions, and his feet were dragging against the ground like his ankles were broken.

Bracing himself, Zane squatted slightly, lifting Lloyd up and securing his legs around his waist. Lloyd instinctively wrapped his arms around his brother's neck, resting his head on Zane's shoulder like a sleeping toddler.

The nindroid bit his lip when he saw the garbage can still lying on its side from where Lloyd had knocked it over the second time. He hated to leave litter, but Lloyd was clearly in need of immediate attention.

The walk home was at least comparably uneventful. Lloyd was dozing the vast majority of the trip, and they received a few odd glances at the robot carrying a teenager, but nothing more.

By the time Zane had finally surmounted the monastery's staircase, his arms were trembling with exertion, his back aching, his legs cramping. It was all he could do to sidle through the monastery's darkened halls in an attempt to not wake anybody.

When he was- _at last_\- able to set Lloyd down on his bed, he had to sit as well for a few moments to compose himself.

Lloyd, blinking his unfocused eyes blearily, instinctively laid down, curling up immediately on his bed as if it was perfectly logical that he had been magically transported from Laffy's to here.

"Lloyd," Zane whispered, shaking his baby brother's leg. "Lloyd, you cannot go to sleep just yet."

The Green Ninja whined, and Zane couldn't help but chuckle fondly. Lloyd was acting even more childish than he had before the Tomorrow's Tea exposure, and Zane couldn't say with one hundred percent honesty that he was completely irritated by the behavior.

Instead of forcing Lloyd to do it himself, Zane pulled Lloyd's shoes off for him one at a time. Maneuvering Lloyd like a particularly unwieldy doll, he managed to get the Green Ninja to shimmy out of his hoodie and, after loosening his belt, to stand up just long enough for his jeans to drop to the ground before collapsing back into bed.

As Lloyd burrowed farther and farther into his green comforter in order to enter hibernation, Zane discreetly stood up. He knew it was more than likely fine, but that cut on Lloyd's chin was still nagging at him, and a quick swipe of hydrogen peroxide wouldn't _hurt_-

"Zane!" Lloyd sobbed, tears running down his face once again. "_Zane_!"

The ice ninja had reappeared at his baby brother's side, sitting on the edge of the bed. Lloyd immediately clung to him. His crying softened but didn't stop as he laid his head on Zane's chest, right over where his power source pulsed reassuringly.

"What is it, Lloyd?" Zane asked the crying teen slumped against him, the picture of helplessness. "What is wrong?"

"Why doesn't anybody _like_ me?" Lloyd cried, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand before replacing his arm around Zane's waist. "E-e-everybody _leaves_ me! R-r-rumi a-and my dad…"

"Lloyd-"

"A-a-and you died!" Lloyd continued, making Zane start, his eyebrows shooting several inches up his forehead. "Y-you died, I saw you _die_…"

Revelation prevented Zane from speaking.

Maybe… this had never been about Harumi, not really.

Zane took a deep breath… then released it. No. It would have to wait until the morning.

Settling back against the headboard, Zane ran his cool hand up and down Lloyd's back as the Green Ninja cried himself out and finally fell asleep.

* * *

The second Lloyd opened his eyes, the jackhammer started going off in his head.

His skull was fractured- his skull was _gone_ if his brain was _throbbing _like this, a piercing, burning, _wrenching_ pain that only got worse the longer he was awake, alive, _extant_.

He groaned, rubbing his forehead as if that would assuage the million little construction workers in his head, before turning on his side- but that movement just made his stomach roil like he was on the worst roller coaster at Mega Monster Amusement Park and he had to freeze in order to push the nausea back down.

"Lloyd?"

The little construction workers started using bullhorns, and Lloyd grasped his head more firmly, groaning out a fraction of his torture.

Still, he forced his heavy eyelids open, acclimating to the new stabbing pain from the light- why was it so bright? Who had the spotlight on in here? Heck, who had the _sun_ in here?

When he finally focused through the blinding rays of light, he saw Zane watching him worriedly from where he was sitting at the foot of the bed.

"Zane?" Lloyd rasped out, once again forcing the vomit back down. What had… What had even _happened_ to him? He remembered going to Laffy's, and then… nothing.

"Lloyd, how are you feeling?"

"Like I got chewed up and spit out and then chewed up again," the Green Ninja replied dryly, groaning again as he flipped onto his back. "What happened, Zane?"

"You decided to get dangerously- and illegally, I might add- drunk last night."

Huh? No, he couldn't have… No, but that did sound familiar. A fan had offered to buy him a drink, and he knew he wasn't supposed to...

But, Harumi wasn't supposed to break his heart and his dad wasn't supposed to be evil, so what did it matter if he did one little thing he wasn't "supposed" to do?

Then again, he did recall a blurry white figure approaching him… Carrying him…

"Oh…," Lloyd moaned. "You came and got me, didn't you, Zane. Oh, geez, I'm… I'm sorry, Zane. I can't believe I was so _stupid_…"

"Yes, it was stupid," Zane confirmed calmly, making Lloyd feel worse than he already did. "Trying to drown your sadness in alcohol was extremely stupid. But, you are not stupid for wanting to do so, Lloyd."

His brain was too scrunched up and twisted to try to get at what Zane was hinting at… All he heard was _stupid, stupid, stupid_…

"You talked about Harumi," Zane elaborated, clasping his hands together elegantly in his lap even as Lloyd balked. "And, you mentioned your father."

"Look, Zane, whatever I said-"

"And, you mentioned us. You mentioned us dying."

Lloyd was sure he was going to throw up.

"Lloyd-"

"I was just rambling-"

"_Lloyd_," Zane snapped, and the Green Ninja recoiled against his pillow (though his head attempted to tell him that he had just banged it against a brick wall.)

The white ninja let out a long exhale before reaching forward to rest his hand on Lloyd's ankle under the covers. Only then did the blonde teen realize he wasn't wearing any pants. Had he really forced Zane to do all that for him last night? Carry him, undress him… Lloyd foresaw many, _many_ apology chores in his future.

"Lloyd, the heart is a remarkable thing," Zane said suddenly, making the Green Ninja question whether he even heard his brother correctly. "No matter how many times it is broken, it can always heal. But only with the right help and only with the right people."

Lloyd felt Zane squeeze his ankle reassuringly, and he closed his eyes, feeling tears pressing at his eyelids despite himself.

"You are the last person in the world who deserves to have his heart broken," the nindroid continued quietly. "Not by someone who you thought loved you. Not by someone who should love you. And, not by those who do love you."

There was no point in denying it. Lloyd had apparently bared his soul the night before. To Zane, he whispered, "I just… I saw the Bounty get _crushed_. With you on it. And, I wanted to keep fighting for you guys, but… But, suddenly it didn't seem like there was anything worth fighting for."

"I understand," Zane reassured. "I do, Lloyd. But, even if we had died that day… even if Nya had perished alongside us… We live in you. If there is even one ninja left, then all of the ninja live, and that is worth fighting for.

"We love you dearly, Lloyd. We will always love you more than anything else in the world," the white ninja declared, his tone firm, leaning forward slightly to impress the importance of what he was saying on the youngest member of their team. "And, that is why, no matter what happens to us, we want you to keep on fighting."

Lloyd pressed his hands into his eyes. "But… But… But, sometimes I don't _want_ to be the one to keep on fighting."

The Green Ninja expected a reprimand, some speech about destiny-

"That is perfectly acceptable."

Lloyd opened his eyes, wincing once again at the light. "Huh?"

"Of course you will feel exhausted and sad and hopeless sometimes, Lloyd. You are only- well, I suppose _mostly_\- human after all." _Now_, Zane fixed the Green Ninja with a disapproving glare. "But, drinking, not only when you are underage, but to the point of _collapse_. That is what is unacceptable."

Lloyd closed his eyes again, nodding. "I know. I don't… It just got away from me. But, believe me, with the way I feel today, I can pretty much guarantee it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," Zane retorted frostily. Then, his tone thawing somewhat, he said, "Bars are not always open, Lloyd. But, my door is."

Lloyd, feeling perhaps one of the shards of the heart that had shattered along with the Destiny's Bounty that day pushed back into place, smiled. "Thanks, Zane. For that and for… last night. For always taking care of me."

The nindroid smiled, nodding. "No thank you necessary, brother." He moved toward the door. "I will go prepare some tea. And, a warning…"

Lloyd raised an eyebrow. "A warning?"

"Yes, you see… while _I_ have finished reading you the riot act, you have three brothers and one very angry sister who are eager to show you the error of your ways…"

Lloyd's green eyes couldn't have gotten any wider. "Wait, no, Zane, _please_-!"

But, the white ninja had already opened Pandora's box.

The four remaining ninja poured into Lloyd's bedroom. Jay was holding a clipboard, and Kai and Cole were holding armfuls of… "tools."

"Okay, List of Things We Need to Make Lloyd's Hangover Miserable and Make Him See How Stupid He Was Last Night: Airhorn?"

"Check," Cole chirped, aiming an evil grin at the horrified Lloyd.

"Cymbals?"

"Check!" Kai added- though, in moving, the instrument fell out of his arms and clattered to the ground with a crash the Serpentine probably heard ten feet below the ground.

Lloyd stuffed his pillow over his head, though whether he was trying to drown out the noise or suffocate himself was really anybody's guess.

Zane laughed mischievously as he ambled toward the kitchen. Perhaps it was tough love, but Lloyd was going to know there was something worth fighting for if it killed him.

* * *

**Poor Lloyd! I can only imagine the day of torture they have planned for him (especially Nya XD)**

**I really hope you guys enjoyed it! Next chapter is Cole (obvi) I can't believe we're already getting close to being finished ;-; Don't worry, there's still Nya's Five Times, Getting to Know You (which will eventually be updated :/), and some other stories! :D**

**On that note, I'm always open for suggestions on Nya's Five Times! (Five Times Nya Was Wrong XD)**

**I hope you all have wonderful days! :D**


	5. Cole

**Okaaaay, so. Funny story ^-^; Cole's chapter was actually one of the *first* chapters I'd written. But, after updating Getting to Know You, I suddenly had the idea to rewrite it. So, I spent a while thinking about that and completely rewriting an ENTIRE new draft... only to end up going back to the original -_-; No worries, I spruced it up, and I ended up liking it :D Why is there always one chapter in a Five Times that just LOVES to give me a hard time?**

**Anyway, this chapter is an *alternate* version of Season 10 involving- you guessed it!- Cole's big fall! (Which was in the trailer, so is not a spoiler ;D)**

**Special thanks to KyraPlays, Katla1, Peanut2196, Sunny Lighter, GameCubeGirl1, Nerdeology-000, Bokkeeper2004, SheaAndDove, MasterOfMusic139, PrairieSkies, NaninaDaPanda, LucariosFish, NinjagoGeek4EVER, SpiritDragon, TheYellowNinja, JBomb12, ninjaloser, LucyBrick123, Piggon, ****The-Aroace-Queen-in-the-Quiver, ninjaturtlefinatic, thefiresensei, SJTiger, JoyoftheStorm, FlightOfTheFury, Guest, RandomDragon2.0, PrismaPup7, StoriesAreMagic, dragonpearlninja, trixiehollister, ArancaMasterOfElves, HeyZaneGoodDay, WindNinja333, Lea Hence, Hiiiiii, Guest, and Guest for reviewing! I appreciate each and every one of you! :D**

**Replies to guest reviews:**

**SpiritDragon: No worries! I totally understand your discomfort and it's okay that the chapter wasn't your cup of tea! But, keep in mind that that uncomfortable feeling was more or less the moral of the chapter: drowning your problems in alcohol is NOT the answer whatsoever. BUT, I totally get that you were disappointed with the Lloyd chapter, and I apologize. But, don't worry! There are still plenty of other opportunities for Lloyd fluff with my other stories, so I hope I'll be able to make up for your disappointment :D The fan probably just thought he was helping Lloyd have a good time, and Lloyd... well, he wanted to just go ahead and forget about his troubles for a little while- and once you start drinking, it's hard to remember how much you've drunk. Dareth was talking about them throwing chairs at Lloyd; the crowd can get pretty rowdy :/ Lloyd doesn't *really* think girls are trash, but that's just how he felt in the moment with all his heartbreak from Harumi ;-; YES! And, Zane made sure to tell Lloyd that they NEED to each other so that they *don't* resort to destructive habits like alcoholism! You're definitely not bothering me, and please feel free to vent your feelings! Like, I said, I totally understand the second hand embarrassment, and I hope you still enjoy future Lloyd content from me :D Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**TheYellowNinja: Aw, I'm so glad you thought this was a necessary chapter! I mean, after all the abuse our poor baby has gone through, I think a chapter dealing with all that heartbreak was long overdue ;-; Haha! I'm glad you enjoyed the reckless drunk Lloyd about to break down a door XD Zane is SUCH a good big brother! He is just so caring and understanding, and writing this story has really given me a newfound appreciation for him ;-; BUT, Lloyd will definitely have to learn his lesson, and I would be very scared of Nya too XD UGH, VOLTRON! It's so good ;-; (In response to your other review, I don't have an Instagram, so I'll look into getting an account, but I really think you should get a Fanfiction account and post your stories!) Straight A's?! WOW! Congratulations! It is the greatest compliment in the world to know that my stories can offer even a little bright spot in your day :D Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**JBomb12: Haha! "AMAZING?!" You are WAY too kind! Yeeeaaah, Dareth needs to be more careful (but then again so does Lloyd XD) And everyone should DEFINITELY thank Zane for being such an amazing big brother! XD Thank you SO MUCH for reviewing! :D**

**Guest: Haha, good idea! I will definitely keep that in mind! XD Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**PrismaPup7: Haha, Lloyd's definitely got some pain in store! But, our poor baby *definitely* has a lot of angst to sort through ;-; And, yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of ways this show could go a *lot* darker o-O But, YES! They love each other no matter what and they can help each other get through anything! :D And, that's probably what I love most about the show :3 Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**HeyZaneGoodDay: Yay! I definitely think there need to be more Zane and Nya bonding stories! XD Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**Hiiiiii: Sorry it took so long to update! ^-^; I hope you like this chapter! Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**Guest: Oooh, very good ideas! I will definitely keep those in mind! Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**Guest: Aaahh! It makes ME so happy to know you think I write Cole well! Hopefully you think so in this chapter as well! :D Thank you sooo much for your lovely review! :D**

* * *

Zane sighed as he swept yet more broken glass into the awaiting dust pan. Normally, it would have taken half the time it had already taken him to finish sweeping the entire floor; heck, the entire NGTV News building.

But, normally, he wasn't awaiting the announcement that they had found Cole's body.

Instead of celebrating the narrow defeat of the oni like most of the rest of Ninjago City, the ninja were pouring their efforts into helping clean up the destruction left by the invaders. It was a way to avoid the cameras and interviews and adoring fans. They couldn't smile and laugh and sign autographs like they'd won, because they _hadn't_.

Zane still couldn't get the sound of Lou's sobbing out of his head. It was so loud and torn and _pained_ that the ninja could clearly hear it from where they were waiting outside the house while Sensei Wu delivered the news.

"Zane!"

He looked up belatedly to see Vinnie the cameraman rushing down the steps three at a time and nearly falling on his face before catching himself. He stumbled to a stop beside Zane, and then bent over with his hands on his knees as he gasped in breath after breath.

"Zane, we- hggghh, oh geez- we… found- found Cole!"

Zane closed his eyes and looked down. He had been the only one willing to even approach the NGTV building, but now-

"Wait, no, no, no, not like- we found _Cole_!" Vinnie exclaimed, straightening and throwing his hands into the air. "He's _alive_!"

The broom clattered against the ground.

* * *

Vinnie had said something about the paramedics pulling up in front of the building, but Zane had already scaled about twenty flights of stairs before the meaning of that statement even penetrated his titanium skull. He sprinted onto the top floor of the NGTV building where they filmed the news. There was Gayle Gossip and two of the other employees, standing in the little room dedicated to the camera and staring wide-eyed through the window into the room where Gayle was usually filmed-

And, there was-

Zane was positive he had never known a feeling like the relief that immediately flooded his body, the shaky weakness that rocked him where he stood, an all-consuming need to collapse, attempt to even process…

His brother was _alive_.

Cole was crouched in the corner of the little newsroom. He had presumably pushed the desk near the corner and hid behind it, which was why it had taken them so long to find him. Blood was smeared across his face, matted in his black hair. His gi was ripped and bloody, and he was cradling his right arm close to his chest the way a wounded animal would while attempting to defend itself in a fight.

His brown eyes darted to the window, skipping between person to person… but they didn't linger on Zane. Even so, Zane could clearly see that Cole's pupils were huge, and he kept wincing every time his gaze strayed too close to the fluorescent light on the ceiling. He was shivering even though it wasn't cold.

Zane laid his hands on the window, already cataloguing Cole's visible injuries. _Definitely a head injury of some sort, broken arm, dehydration, since it had been twenty four hours since… twenty four hours… Cole had been waiting here like this for twenty four hours-_

Two paramedics dressed in navy blue suddenly rushed past the open door of the camera room and entered the room Cole was holed up in, an orange backboard carried between them.

Zane watched as they approached Cole, asking him loudly enough to hear through the glass if Cole knew what his name was, if he could tell them what his injuries were. All the while the black ninja stared uncomprehendingly at them and did not move from his place in the corner.

Carefully, the two paramedics took hold of the desk, pulling it out from where it was barricading Cole in the corner of the room-

And, Zane gagged, letting his forehead hit the glass because he couldn't hold his head up anymore.

The leg that Zane couldn't see from where Cole was behind the desk was mangled, twisted in so many unnatural ways that Zane's leg throbbed in response.

The woman paramedic came closer to Cole, murmuring soothing words as she-

As if he were a toy that had been wound up, Cole came to life.

His huge hand slammed into her chest, pushing her off her feet so she stumbled backward into the wall. The male paramedic sprang to restrain Cole's limbs, but Cole's super strong fist caught him in the side of the face, causing him to crash to the floor.

The female paramedic who had recovered was digging in her medical bag for a sedative-

Zane was in the doorway without realizing he had moved, ignoring Vinnie and Gayle's warnings to let the professionals handle this, and then the paramedics' calls for him to stay back.

"It is not his fault," Zane insisted, as if that was an appropriate response to their orders. "He is hurt, he does not know where he is, Cole, _Cole_…"

The black ninja stared at the potential new enemy with the same primal fear.

"Cole, please," Zane said softly as he shuffled ever closer to his wounded brother. "Cole, they are trying to help you. Please, brother. Know me."

The white ninja slowly lowered himself to his knees beside Cole, reaching for his unbroken arm-

Cole's super strong punch was headed for his face-

Zane caught the fist, barely able to suppress the grunt of pain. Had he been human, catching a fist with that much force behind it definitely would have snapped his arm like a twig.

The black ninja was struggling, jerking his arm to try and escape Zane's grip, attempting to use his one good leg to push himself further away from this enemy. As the movement shifted the broken parts of his body, he screamed, pure, unadulterated pain. Like Lou's sobs.

"Cole," Zane whispered, holding fast. "_Cole_."

As exhausted and weak as he was, he could not sustain his efforts for long. He sagged against the wall, eyes falling half shut as he awaited whatever fate Zane had to offer.

The white ninja pulled his brother against his chest, pressing the head against his shoulder in a tight but reassuring embrace.

"Now," Zane whispered so as to not startle the finally docile Cole. "Sedate him now."

The wary paramedics, who valiantly put their duties before their fear, prepared the syringe and as quickly as possible, injected Cole with the sedative.

Immediately, Cole fell limp against Zane, and though he knew it had been necessary to get his brother the help he needed, he couldn't help but feel like he had betrayed Cole's trust in some way, couldn't help but feel sick to his stomach that they'd had to resort to tranquilizing Cole like an animal because they had left him here for twenty four hours, hurt and delirious and so, so scared...

His instinctive protectiveness flared up as the paramedics took his brother away from him, maneuvering him onto the backboard. He did not leave Cole's side for one moment after that, not until they had spirited him behind the swinging double doors of the operating room where Zane couldn't follow.

* * *

Zane stared blankly at his phone. Cole had already been in surgery and then recovery for hours, but with all of the destruction still clogging up the conduits of Ninjago City and all of the refugees flooding back in to reclaim their homes, it was nearly impossible to travel any distance through the city. The rest of the ninja were on their way, and Zane only hoped they got here soon. He only hoped they had some explanation as to why the had left their brother stranded, _stranded_, for twenty four hours, only hoped they could tell him how to deal with _knowing_ Cole was dead and _seeing_ him alive...

He jumped when someone touched him on the shoulder.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," the nurse said gently with a little smile. "It's just… Cole is awake now if you'd like to see him."

Zane blinked slowly several times.

"That is… great news," he said eventually with a shaky exhale. "Is he… Will he…"

"He passed all of his cognitive evaluations with flying colors," the nurse reassured him. "Though, we'd like to keep him at least overnight for observation."

"Of course," Zane said tightly, swallowing. "Of course."

The nurse nodded slowly before gesturing toward the hallway, which was the only thing that prompted Zane into motion. She left him at Cole's door, and Zane tapped his knuckle softly against the wood before entering.

His right arm and leg were encased in white plaster. There was bruising around his dull brown eyes, and an IV stuck in his arm dripping hydration and painkillers back into his body. He blinked sleepily up at Zane, his head heavy against the pillow.

"Cole."

Zane rushed forward, not even bothering to pull a chair up to Cole's bedside. He knelt directly on the floor beside his brother, crushing the metal railing in both fists so it would probably be permanently warped.

"Cole," Zane repeated. It was the only word he knew. "Cole."

He reached out his hand to lay it on his brother's uninjured arm-

Cole moved it out of the way, instead rubbing his cast as if it ached. And his response came out as a whisper.

"How do I know you're not oni?"

Zane swallowed a sob for Cole's sake. It hurt more going down than it did coming up. It stabbed into his chest, scraping his insides raw.

"I swear to you, Cole," Zane said quietly but with all the gravity he could muster. "They will never touch you again."

"Is my-" Cole's face pinched, and he took an odd little hiccuping breath as his eyes filled with tears. "Is my dad here?"

"Not yet," Zane said quietly, reaching up to brush back a strand of Cole's ebony hair. "But, he is coming."

Cole looked down, his eyelashes barely sweeping his tan cheekbones as Zane continued stroking his hair. The mechanical movement was probably more for himself than for Cole, trailing his fingers through the silky softness and just being grateful there was no blood there.

After several minutes, Cole blinked a long, slow blink, as if it was all he could do to stay awake, before looking back at Zane.

"I fell?" He asked, as if he had just woken up.

"Yes," Zane replied, trying to keep his voice at the volume and cadence of a lullaby. "You fell."

Cole trailed his fingers over his cast yet again. "Hard."

"Yes," Zane rubbed his hand over his face. "Cole, I… I am so sorry that you had to-"

But, Cole was shaking his head against the pillow, attempting to turn onto his side facing away from Zane, though his broken leg prevented him from doing so. "No, no, I don't…"

Zane furrowed his brow. Cole trailed off like he had fallen asleep, and he wondered exactly how lucid his brother was at the moment. "Pardon?"

"I don' wanna talk about it," Cole slurred with just the hint of a whine, shaking his head yet again.

His opposite hand tightened his grip on his cast. "I's not like it even matters anyway."

Zane paused, attempting to calculate the best course of action. Cole clearly needed to rest more, but not knowing _what_ it was that didn't matter was going to pick away at Zane, like a chisel _pick, pick, _picking away at stone.

"Cole, what do you mean? What does not-"

But, at that moment, Cole's door burst open, slamming into the adjacent wall, and a rainbow of color came pouring through the threshold. The other four ninja immediately crowded around Cole's bed, asking him how he was feeling, how he had survived, expressing how _absolutely ecstatic _they were that he was _here, alive_-

But, if their sudden appearance, however well-intentioned, was startling to Zane, then it was downright terrifying to Cole. His brown eyes darted from face to face before he finally threw both arms over his head and sobbed.

* * *

Zane started awake from where he had been dozing in the chair at the side of the room. Cole, despite obviously being exhausted, had only been able to catch snatches of fitful sleep. Although Zane thought that his brother had finally descended into a deep, restful sleep, here he was awake again after what Zane's internal clock told him had only been about twenty minutes.

"Cole," he said quietly, and his brother jumped at his voice, as if he had expected Zane to be gone even though the nindroid had never left his side.

Still, Zane understood. The black ninja had been jumpy and easily startled since he woke up; he wouldn't let anyone near him except Zane.

"_But, I want to be there for him," Jay had insisted, staring longingly at the shut door to Cole's room. "He needs us."_

"_He does," Zane agreed. "But, he is already exhibiting symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Too much too fast will only upset him."_

"_So, why is he okay with you being near him?" Kai asked, crossing his arms defiantly._

"_It is nothing personal. I was with him from the time we found him in the NGTV building."_

"_We have to do what's best for Cole, guys," Lloyd reminded them, though his forlorn tone suggested he was anything but okay with this._

"_Let's focus on getting Cole's dad here," Nya offered, perking up at the idea of a mission like a flower being watered for the first time in days. "With all the roads closed, driving's going to be a nightmare…"_

"How are you feeling?" Zane asked softly, slowly approaching Cole's bed.

"Mm," Cole replied, closing his eyes again as he tossed and turned. The casts were unwelcome weights, though, keeping him uncomfortable and lopsided.

"Perhaps you would like to eat some gelatin?" Zane offered, conspicuously pushing the tray with the green Jell-O cup on it closer to Cole's bed.

Cole went to push it away, but with his right arm being so heavy, he only twitched his hand before giving up, turning his head away as if trying to find a more comfortable position.

"Cole," Zane chided. "The doctor said you needed to eat."

The black ninja stubbornly didn't move, keeping his face turned away and his eyes closed. In fact, he was so still, Zane thought he might have fallen asleep again. _It's okay for him to be still as long as his chest is moving, as long as it's never still again…_

Deciding that sleep was just as valuable as nourishment at the moment, Zane tiptoed over to the lightswitch and flipped it off-

Cole immediately sat up and screamed. "_Turn it on, turn it on, turn it on_!"

Instantly, the light was back on and Zane was at Cole's side, his titanium hand on his very human brother's trembling back. Cole was sitting hunched forward, his head in his hands as his chest heaved with the beginnings of a panic attack.

"Cole, I am so sorry," Zane whispered hurriedly. "I did not think. It was stupid of me to do that."

Cole stayed hunched over, still shaking like a leaf, still squeezing his eyes shut. "Just… just no more darkness… not now, not yet… I don't want to be in the dark…"

Zane imagined ripping Omega in half and was mildly surprised that he was not horrified by the image. But, seeing as that was impossible, along with reaching inside Cole's head and destroying any memories his brother had of being hurt, of being afraid, the nindroid had to resign himself to comforting Cole as best he could.

Cole, somewhat calm now, slowly unfolded and allowed himself to lay stiffly back down, the bruised ribs no doubt proclaiming their protest with shooting pains throughout Cole's chest.

The black ninja slung his unbroken arm over his face, letting out a slow exhale.

"Cole," Zane tried again. "I want to apologize again-"

"It's fine, Zane," Cole interrupted curtly. "I'm- I'm fine. Just being dumb."

"It is not dumb in the slightest," Zane asserted, furrowing his brow. "Would you like to-"

"No, I… I don't want to _do _anything, Zane," Cole replied, once again attempting to roll on his side away from Zane. "I just want to be alone."

The nindroid stayed in place. "The doctor said it might help if you talk through what happened to you."

"No, no, _no_!" Cole responded, aiming a glare over his shoulder at Zane before grabbing the blanket and pulling it up to his shoulders, as if to signal to Zane that he was going to sleep no matter what. "It doesn't-"

"Matter?" Zane finished. Cole stayed on his side, but obediently fell silent.

The white ninja continued. "Why would it not matter?"

Cole was silent, still facing away from his brother.

And, Zane _knew_ he was hurting, he _knew_ that people suffering from PTSD should not be pushed, should talk about it at their own speed, but before his brain could let his body know any of this information, he was grabbing Cole's unbroken arm and pushing him onto his back so he could look his brother in the eye.

"Why on _earth_ would you think that this does not matter?"

Cole, looking like a deer caught in headlights, blinked a few times before shrugging painfully. "It's just- it's better it happened to me than one of you guys."

Zane was not physically capable of processing that sentence.

Cole, perhaps taking the nindroid's silence to be confirmation or encouragement, continued. "My whole purpose is to protect _you guys_, so if I'm the one that dies, then, you know, it doesn't really _matter_, because that's what I'm here for, you know?"

"Where did that idea come from?" Zane asked very, very quietly. "That you are the expendable member of the team?"

"You _know_, Zane," Cole insisted. "I'm not a genius like you and Nya and Jay. Kai can take on anybody, and he's crazy enough to. Lloyd's the Green Ninja. You single-handedly defeated the Overlord, Zane!"

He self-consciously crossed both his arms over his stomach, the left hand rubbing the cast of his right arm. "I can't really _do_ any of that. But, I can protect you guys. That's what I do. So, it's better that _I'm_ the one that fell instead of Jay or one of you guys."

Zane lowered himself onto the floor once again, his knees giving out after receiving this weight that Cole had been carrying around with him for who knew how long. "You are utterly and completely wrong, Cole."

Copying the position he had taken hours before, kneeling beside Cole's bed and using both hands to grip the railing, he stared intently into Cole's chocolate brown eyes looking back at him.

"Cole, you are the _foundation_ of the team. Without you, everything comes crumbling down." Zane shook his head, as if still reeling from Cole's confession. "What I have seen you do… You are _extraordinary_."

Cole went to shake his head, but Zane was not finished.

"Perhaps I can explode my own power source, yes. But, you faced Sensei Yang, whom you had every right to hate, and you offered him compassion and mercy. You risked your own wellbeing for a child and cared for him as if he were your own." Zane swallowed painfully. "And, I will never forget being chained in my cell, with no idea where I was or how I got there or if I was even going to live… and then seeing my brother at the window, telling me that everything was going to be okay."

Zane leaned forward. "_That_ is why it matters."

Cole blinked rapidly, wiping impatiently at his eyes.

The nindroid looked down, squinting at the seemingly random gray drips that made up the pattern of the tile floor as if they held the answer to some eternal riddle. "If we had any inkling you had survived the fall, we would come back for you immediately. If we thought there was any possible chance that you were waiting for us, we would have never left."

"Zane, I don't blame-"

"I am sorry I could not protect you from this, brother," Zane continued in the same quiet tone, uncharacteristically talking over whatever Cole meant to say. "But, I would have taken your place in a heartbeat."

Suddenly, the door slammed open once again, causing both Zane and Cole to jump and turn toward the newest visitor.

"Wait, Mr. Cole's Dad, don't-"

"He might not want to see you-"

"Don't scare him-!"

The rest of the ninja's warnings clearly fell on deaf ears as they gathered warily in the hallway, waiting to see what would happen.

Lou was standing there with one hand still on the door knob and the other braced against the door frame, as if it was all he could do to hold himself up. His suit jacket had its buttons in the wrong holes, and his tie was hanging lopsided and loose, utterly unlike the polished gentleman Zane had met previously.

He was staring right through Zane (Cole always claimed that his dad had the uncanny ability to _not see_ people he didn't want to see), blinking at Cole like he recognized him but couldn't remember where they'd met.

The voice that petered out from behind Zane was thin and very, very small. "Dad…"

As Lou rushed forward to hug his son, Zane discreetly excused himself from the room, knowing that his presence was no longer quite so needed, something that he couldn't have been happier about.

* * *

**After so much agonizing over it, I really hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Don't worry, Zane's chapter is ready to go and I love it exactly how it is ;D**

**I will reply to reviews shortly! I can never thank you guys enough for reading my stories! :D**


	6. Zane

**I'm so sad this is the last chapter ;-; I really, REALLY hope you guys like this because I do :D**

**For this chapter, we're going a little bit back in time! This is an *alternate* version of Zane's big fight with Mr. E in Season 8 (if you watched Brent Miller's interview with Tommy Andreasen, you probably already know where I'm going with this ;D)**

**Special thanks to: ****The-Aroace-Queen-in-the-Quiver, SheaAndDove, KyraPlays, PrismaPup7, trixiehollister, ninjaloser, Nerdeology-000, ninjaturtlefinatic, The Night Ninja, NinjagoFangurl7, NaninaDaPanda, Lea Hence, Bookkeeper2004, Drawkill Vear and Lycaran, WindNinja333, Applegirlz11, Peanut2196, Katla1, GameCubeGirl1, SJTiger, SilverOreo, JBomb217, TheYellowNinja, SpiritDragon, Hiiiiii, LucyBrick123, MasterOfMusic129, PrairieSkies, toothlessturtle21, Piggon, test123456789, and nindroidzane for reviewing! :D I'm almost finished replying to reviews! :D**

**Replies to guest reviews:**

**JBomb217: Oh, this NEEDED to be written?! That is a FANTASTIC compliment! (And, I'm glad you think so! There was so much more they could have done with Cole's fall, so I felt like it needed to be written as well ;-;) YAY, and I'm so happy you liked all the feels :3 OH! I LOVE Finding Nemo! :D Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**TheYellowNinja: "Absolutely perfect?!" You are WAY too kind! ^-^ Yeeeaaah, probably too dark for a kid's show, but I still couldn't help but want more out of Cole's big fall! Zane is just SUCH a good brother! I mean, he always seems to know just the right thing to say :3 I am so so SO glad you thought the whole exchange was realistic! (As you know by now, that is my top priority :D) I DEFINITELY love Cole for his protectiveness and compassion for everyone! And, Cole "beat" Sensei Yang (who TERRORIZED him) with LOVE and COMPASSION! HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE HIM!? *Ahem* Yes, I will think about getting an Instagram account and get back to you! ;D It sounds like fun, and I'm so glad you think I'd be a good addition to the community ^-^ But, either way, I think you should definitely post your stories! :D Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**SpiritDragon: Yay! It's such an honor that you will still read my content AND that you think it's realistic! Yeah, I try not to get too terribly graphic, and I try to warn people if I think there's any dicey content... It's an absolutely terrible thing to blindside people with mature content they were not expecting ;-; RIGHT?! I mean, all these adventures are cool and stuff, but these characters' lives are HARD! I can't even imagine the trauma and PTSD that must follow ;-; Thank you so much for reviewing! :D**

**Hiiiiii: Haha, sorry about that! There is a delay on guest reviews :D Aw, I'm so glad you're enjoying the story, and I am ECSTATIC to know that you're reading my other stories as well! :D Let me know how you like them! :D Wow, and I'm super glad so many people think the last chapter could be turned into a longer fic! I always need more ideas ;D Thank you SO MUCH for reviewing! :D**

* * *

"You're the Quiet One, aren't you?! You're the one in charge!" Zane demanded, leaning closer, squinting, trying to see beneath that hellish red visor-

Mr. E narrowed his eyes, and Zane gasped at the shiver of cold that _one look_ sent through his body. The biker leaned over, snatching the handlebar of Zane's motorcycle and speeding up.

The white ninja's eyes widened as he saw the edge of the cliff hurtling toward them.

"Who are you?!" Zane yelled one last time over the roar of their synchronized bikes, but it was too late- Mr. E was only speeding up and the cliff was-

Bracing himself, Zane threw himself off of his bike, _thudding_ into the ground and rolling over and over. He grit his teeth as the rocks dinged him over and over again and sighed in relief when he finally came to a stop and could attempt to catch his-

He gasped when he heard a crash. Zane managed to look up just in time to see the bikes slam into each other with an ear-splitting screech of splintering metal and then go toppling into the gorge with a squeal of tires.

Trying to steel himself enough to stagger to his feet, the ice ninja shook his head and looked around for his opponent, somewhat hoping he hadn't met the same fate as his bike if only so he could find out his identity.

Mr. E was on his knees several feet away, collecting himself as Zane was-

His hand-

His hand-

Was _missing_.

Mr. E's hand was lying six inches away from his wrist and- _oh my _goodness_, his hand_\- wasn't… bleeding.

His hand was sparking, and now Zane could make out the outline of frayed wires poking out of the… robotic hand?

As Mr. E grabbed the hand and twisted it back on to his left arm with no apparent concern for his health whatsoever, Zane blinked and realized what exactly he was looking at.

"You're like me," he announced to the back of his opponent who was still kneeling on the ground. "You're a nindroid."

Mr. E didn't reply- naturally- but he did stand up, and that was when Zane saw that his helmet had been knocked off in the struggle, that finally he would be able to get a glimpse at the person- at the nindroid _like him_\- who was behind that hellish red visor-

Mr. E turned around.

Zane froze.

Something must have gotten knocked loose in his head. His internal processing was damaged in the fall, his optical sensors were receiving conflicting input, he was simply unconscious and _dreaming_\- which should have been impossible for a nindroid-

"You're me."

The words fell out of his mouth without thought, without regard to the several- _completely rational_\- explanations in his head as to why a nindroid that had his exact same model was standing where Mr. E used to be. The only difference between them was that this model looked much older, his metal skeleton brown and rough, and it looked like rust had been scraped away in places. Dim yellow eyes stared into bright blue.

"No, I'm not," Mr. E- _Zane_\- refuted, cocking his head head with a smirk. "Hello, brother."

"B-B-Brother?" Zane repeated, finally gathering his feet under him. He took a few stumbling steps toward the nindroid- toward _Zane_\- and- and- reached out a hand. "But… But…, all the other nindroids were destroyed… And, no one is supposed to have my original blueprints…"

As soon as Zane was within arm's length of the… the _other_ Zane, Mr. E pushed him hard enough to knock the white ninja to the ground with another dull_ thud_, even if Zane hadn't already been knocked off balance by this staggering implications of this revelation.

Mr. E tackled Zane on the ground, grabbing his gi in both hands-

And delivered a punch to the side of the face that made pain explode in Zane's head. The white ninja ignored the status reports- and the warnings of imminent shut down if this type of damage continued- turning his head back regardless to see his reflection in the dull yellow eyes of… of… his _brother_?

"I guess Father never told you about me," Mr. E sneered, jerking Zane forward by his gi. He was glaring at Zane with a hatred that… that was so deep that it could only have been steeped in hurt, betrayal.

Loneliness.

And in the face of that hate, Zane could feel nothing but love for something that his father had created- if in fact, this other Zane was telling the truth.

And, Zane thought he was.

Mr. E delivered another vicious punch, and once again Zane's survival algorithms were calculating escape strategies, different martial arts techniques he could use to escape this hold.

He stayed exactly where he was.

"I guess _Father_ forgot about me once he had his _son_ back," Mr. E spit. "Because, I'm _not_ you. I'm a _clone_ of you that could never quite stand up to the original, now could I?"

"Mr. E!" Zane shouted, holding his hands up to try to stave off another punch. It felt odd addressing him as such, but what else was he supposed to call him? "Zane" probably would not be received favorably. "Please. If my father made you, then I am sure he loved you. He loved all his inventions-"

"_Liar!"_ Mr. E screamed. He stood up, bodily hauling Zane up and _tossing_ him away as if he were trash. Once again, the white ninja went tumbling and over himself, every pebble and dip in the ground causing pain to pulsate throughout his entire body. He cringed as he could _feel _new dents forming, the metal buckling in a way that was unnatural and _wrong_\- like a broken bone- but once again, he ignored the pain.

Flat on his back, he lifted himself up on one elbow to see Mr. E stomping toward him, his fists clenched with rage. Rage that before, was terrifying and dangerous… but now seemed almost childish. Like a tantrum.

"Mr. E, Dr. Julien made you for _good_, I _know _he did!" Zane insisted, weakly raising his other arm that didn't seem to be responding well to his commands. "The Sons of Garmadon… they've brainwashed you, warped your mind!"

"_Shut up_!" Mr. E shouted, kicking Zane over and over and _over_ again in the ribs, trying to release- what, _years_? How long ago had Dr. Julien invented him?- of abandonment. "_Shut up, shut up, shut up_! They said you'd do this! They said you'd _lie_!"

Zane, mustering up the last of his strength reserve, managed to time his movement and grab Mr. E's ankle just before his foot connected with his titanium skeleton once again. Pivoting, he threw Mr. E to the ground beside him on his stomach, twisting his ankle painfully to keep him down. The other nindroid cried out and pounded the ground in frustration, and only then did Zane see how close to the edge of the cliff they were.

"Please," he whispered, his breath rattling in his mechanical lungs. Something was wrong. Something was wrong with his body, but he couldn't give up- had to-

"I don't want to fight you," Zane all but pleaded, partly because he wasn't sure he _could_ fight anymore.

Mr. E- _Zane_\- stopped struggling and turned to look over his shoulder at the white ninja who was staring back at him solemnly. Zane's face softened, his mouth just beginning to lift into a-

Mr. E grabbed him.

And threw him.

Something was wrong- Zane hadn't hit the ground yet- he was falling, falling, falling, watching Mr. E- his _brother's_ face get farther and farther away above him as the nindroid watched him fall-

Fall-

_Falling_-

Zane must have blacked out the moment he hit the ground. His eyes had red warning signs flashing across his screen, and his power kept fluctuating wildly, but always draining, always draining- "_Shutdown imminent! Shutdown imminent!"_

Mr. E. Standing over him. Staring down at him.

Zane tried to speak, tried to reach a hand out to the other nindroid… "Z-Zane…"

But, blackness swept over his vision as his systems succumbed to total shutdown.

* * *

"-ane? Zane! C'mon, stay with me, buddy."

Emergency power reserves? They… wouldn't last…

He tried to make sense of the fragmented bits of visual input that was penetrating the black haze. There was some sort of light… Someone was leaning over him…

"Z-Zane…," he managed to force out. His elbow jerked wildly as he tried to move his arm that was much too heavy for his body. "M-M-M… E…"

"Shhh, Zane, stop trying to move," Cole- it was definitely Cole- said soothingly. "You're gonna be okay, buddy. You're gonna be okay…"

Wait, wasn't Cole still a prisoner of the Sons of Garmadon? Where _Zane's_ plan had landed him? The plan that had imploded, the plan that had left him here pathetic at the bottom of a cliff, the plan that had left Cole in danger?

"'M… so-so-rry…"

"Zane! Stop talking," Cole demanded gently. Zane leaned into the hand on the side of the face, felt safe when he had no right to, felt safe when Cole hadn't, when Mr. E hadn't- _where had he been all this time? Where would his father have left him? Why…_

_Why didn't he tell me?_

Everything… Everythng he had done… Had been for nothing. He'd put Cole's life in danger for nothing, had taken Mr. E on one on one and couldn't break through to him…

Tears blinded him, blurred what little he could see.

"M'sor…"

Cole gathered Zane in his arms, and the nindroid leaned into his the chest of the brother that he let down even if Cole never let him down...

Cole placed him gently on the pallet that had been lowered from the Destiny's Bounty.

"You're gonna be okay, bro," Cole repeated yet again, like it was a magic spell that would make it true. "I promise…"

The black rushed back in again before Zane could hear anything else.

* * *

Zane shot up straight in bed, screaming.

"Mr. E!"

"Woah, woah, Zane- Zane- calm-"

"Zane, don't-!"

Zane grabbed his head with his hands, squeezing his eyes shut. "No, no, no, we have to go back, we have to go _back_! Mr. E is- is- _me_!"

"Zane!" Somebody was holding onto him, guiding him into lying back down on the pallet. "Zane, we'll help you with whatever it is that's freaking you out, but you gotta calm down first."

Somebody was squeezing his hand. The pressure was firm but welcome… grounding him… bringing him back to reality.

He blinked a few times to see Jay leaning over him, smiling hopefully down at him. He laid his opposite hand over their clasped hands. "That's it, bro. Just calm down…"

"Jay…," Zane said it meaning it to come across as a declaration of recognition, as a reassurance that he was done panicking. Instead, it came out high and strained, more like a cry for help than a demonstration of strength. All at once, he felt tears pressing at his eyes again, and he said it again, more urgently. "_Jay_…"

Jay squeezed Zane's hand tighter as somebody else moved on Zane's other side.

"You were hurt pretty bad, Zane," Nya said softly, laying a hand gently on his arm. "You gotta take it easy, or you'll risk damaging something even further."

Zane closed his eyes, keeping the tears contained at all costs. He was shaking- he was _shaking_\- and he hated how shaky and wrung out and-

"I'm sorry," he finally said, hurriedly wiping his eyes with his sleeve. "I'm sorry…"

"You've got nothing to be sorry for, Zane," Nya reassured. "The only person who should be apologizing for this is Mr. E-"

"Mr. E," Zane interrupted uncharacteristically. He said the name firmly, the beginning of a new conversation, the first step in moving away from this shaky, teary self. The name was the grasping of the reins of this horse that had bucked him off. The name was a promise.

"I discovered Mr. E's identity," Zane stated, struggling to sit up once again. Seeing that he was determined, Nya and Jay helped him lean against the wall. Looking around, Zane saw that he was lying on the cot in the sick bay, hooked up to a multitude of monitors. All at once, he felt sickened at the sight of everything his siblings had done for him, everything they had had to do because of _his_ plan that didn't even-

Mr. E. Zane. A promise.

"He is… a nindroid," Zane led in uncertainly, lowering his bright blue eyes to his lap. "He is… a version of my model. He claims he was invented by my father."

Zane took a deep breath. "He called me brother."

When he managed to muster up the courage, he looked up… to see Nya and Jay exchanging raised eyebrows, slight frowns, concerned glances.

"Are you… sure, Zane?" Jay asked eventually. "I mean, you were beaten up pretty bad. Are you sure you're not maybe just… getting mixed up with what you think you saw?"

"I know what I saw," the nindroid replied steadfastly.

"But, how would that make any sense?" Jay volleyed back. "Your dad made another nindroid that looks just like you and now he's suddenly evil?"

Nya gasped, covering her mouth. "Jay, do you think- I mean, what if-"

The lightning ninja stared at his girlfriend for the space of half a second before his electric blue eyes bugged out of his head and he slapped both hands over his mouth with a painful-sounding _thwap_.

"No! You don't think-"

"Surely not… But, that's the only thing that makes sense…"

"But, that's… that's _insane_!"

"Excuse me," Zane interceded, eyes darting back and forth from his brother and sister who were devolving more and more into unintelligibility. "What is the possibility that occurred to you two?"

Jay waved his arms frantically in front of him as if fruitlessly trying to whack a bug. "No, no, no, it's totally _crazy_! There's no point in even-"

"I have a right to know," Zane said quietly. His eyes were hard and cold, like ice. "If it has something to do with my father and my… brother, then I have a right to know."

Jay scratched his head nervously and bit his lip before finally deferring to Nya. The water ninja took a deep breath. She pulled a stool over to the side of Zane's cot and sat down with the air of a grandfather preparing to tell the story of his childhood.

"This is going to sound crazy," Nya prefaced. "But, I promise you everything I'm about to say is one hundred percent true."

And so Nya, with interjections from Jay, told the story of the pirate genie, Nadakhan, that had trapped all but the two of them in his magic sword. They told him that the reason no one else remembered this was because Jay had made a wish that had effectively erased the timeline, and they had made the decision that it was better to pretend the entire ordeal had never happened rather than attempt to explain this to all of the other ninja.

But, more importantly, she told Zane about the brief time that she and Jay took cover in the lighthouse where his father had been imprisoned. She told him that they had met a rusted nindroid who called himself Zane.

"We called him Echo Zane," Jay finished quietly. "Or, just Echo for short."

"Echo Zane," the white ninja repeated in a monotone. "Echo."

Zane clenched his fists in his lap. "And, you did not see it fit to inform me of this until now?"

"Oh, Zane, we're so sorry," Nya immediately said. "We assumed that he was shut down and only woke up when we 'trespassed' in the lighthouse. Or, that… that there was a reason your father never told you about him. And, we didn't know how to explain how we knew…"

"And now the Sons of Garmadon have him," Zane pointed out, looking down at his lap once again where his fists had created dramatic divots and folds in the sheets around his clenched fingers. "And, he hates me and our father for abandoning him and _rightly so_!"

Jay bit his lip. "Zane, we're-"

"I would like to be alone, please."

Jay, alarmed, turned to Nya. She nodded slightly, and Jay, squeezing Zane's leg on the way out, quietly left the room.

But, Nya did not leave. She turned back to the monitors, studying the diagrams of Zane's inner circuitry.

"You have every right to want to be alone," she announced by way of explanation. "But, no matter how mad you are at me, you are one of the most important things in the world to me and I'm going to make sure you're fixed before I leave you alone.

"Yell at me if you want to," Nya typed a few things on the keyboard. "But, I'm not going anywhere."

Zane debated snapping at Nya to get out… but even though he was angry with her, he couldn't help but feel glad that she was there with him still. Nya exuded a calming influence with her no nonsense if somewhat snippy determination, and Zane found himself relieved that, at least for the time being, he did not have to be the one making decisions or plans or emotional pleas for mercy…

He closed his eyes, sinking into the pillow. He never could stay mad for long.

* * *

Zane started awake when he heard the door swing open. He almost snapped at whoever it was that he still needed to be alone… but after he looked over his shoulder and saw that it was Kai that had sauntered in, he decided against it. Kai would come in whether Zane wanted him to or not. Resistance was futile when it came to the red ninja.

"Hey, Zane," the fire ninja greeted, pulling up the stool that Nya had apparently vacated. She was nowhere to be found. "Jay told us about… Echo."

The white ninja blinked slowly from where he was lying on his side, the right half of his face pressed into the pillow. He had never felt this tired. Not after any mission. Not after the Great Devourer, not after the Final Battle, not after waking up trapped in Chen's dungeon. He was just… _tired_.

"And, I'm going to tell you something that you're not going to want to hear," Kai continued. His amber brown eyes were making unbreaking contact with Zane's icy blue ones, and it was as if they were melting the walls Zane was quickly constructing around the part of him that Mr. E- Echo- had hurt, the part that neither Nya nor Jay could fix with tools and diagrams.

"We'll do everything we can to save him," Kai began, leaning closer, bringing his warm amber brown eyes closer. "We'll try to capture him without hurting him, and we'll try to get through to him."

Kai sighed, finally breaking eye contact for a moment, his gaze dropping to the ground, his eyelashes acting like a curtain that concealed his burning intensity. When he restored eye contact, it was even hotter than before, and Zane almost felt physically hurt by them.

"But, what he's done is not your fault," Kai continued. "It's Echo's."

Zane closed his eyes, shaking his head. "How on earth can you _say_ that-"

"None of this justifies what he's doing now," Kai insisted steadfastly. "None of this justifies all the people that are going to get hurt if they get all three of the oni masks and summon Garmadon."

"But…," Zane pressed his head harder into the pillow. "But, they must have reprogrammed him… If they altered his code, then he is not responsible for what he is doing… If I had just gotten to him _first_-"

"It is not your fault, Zane," Kai repeated, grabbing his brother's arm in a death grip. "But, I don't think you're really mad at yourself. I think you're mad at your dad. And, I think you're mad at Echo for doing this.

"And I know it's easier to turn all that anger around and put it inside yourself, but it's not right. It's okay to be mad at Echo, no matter if he's responsible or not. It's okay to blame your dad."

Zane blinked slowly.

Tears blurred his vision.

"Why did he not just _tell_ me?" Zane begged, turning his face into the pillow to hide his tears. "I would have loved him. I would have _loved_ him."

"I know," Kai replied, rubbing Zane's back soothingly. "I know."

* * *

"_Zane_!"

The white ninja shot up at the sound of urgency in the voice and looked to see Lloyd run into the room. All at once he noticed the lights were dim, almost as if they were using the limited power of the backup generators...

And, his chest plate was wide open. For some reason.

"Zane, we need help!" Lloyd shouted, rushing to Zane's bedside. "Mr. E- Echo- he planted something on you that's messing with the Bounty."

"W-what…?" Zane whispered. Looking down again, he slowly closed his chest plate, pressing it back into a place with a quiet _click_.

Here he had been, hoping that the fact that Echo hadn't captured him or destroyed him was a sign of mercy, that maybe there was some little part of Echo that was _listening_ to Zane, that knew what he was doing was wrong and had left Zane alive so that he could _help_ Echo, so he could _save_ him.

But, it had been a trap from the very beginning. Echo had wanted the others to bring him onto the Bounty comatose but intact. Was there even anything left of the nindroid his father had created to protect those that cannot protect themselves?

"I am so sorry, Lloyd," Zane said aloud, pressing both hands against his chest plate as if he could stuff the bug back inside and let it tear up his insides instead of hurting the others. "I… I should have known… or at least suspected. I have failed the team-"

Lloyd's hands clapped onto Zane's shoulders with all the strength of the Green Ninja and Zane's eyes shot to Lloyd's face.

"Zane, this is not your fault. But, we need you now," Lloyd said quietly but firmly. "_Pixal_ needs you now."

Zane froze. "Pixal?"

"The bug is hacking her systems. And- don't ask me to explain because I don't really know how- but she's also Samurai X and the bug is using her to attack us. She _needs_ you, Zane."

"Pixal." Zane repeated without moving.

"I know you're hurting right now, and I know you wish there was something you could do for Echo," Lloyd continued. "But, if there is one innocent person left in Ninjago, then we can't give up. Ninja never quit.

"As long as we have each other, there's something worth fighting for," Lloyd squeezed Zane's shoulders. "Pixal is worth fighting for."

Zane threw the sheets off his body, tossing his legs over the side of the cot.

He stood up for the first time since falling off that cliff.

Maybe he had failed Echo. Maybe Echo was lost forever- and maybe there had been something else Zane could have done to save him.

But, even if all of that was true, it didn't change the fact that the love of his life needed him. His siblings needed him.

And, they were worth fighting for.

He nodded at Lloyd to show that he was ready, and Lloyd grinned back at him before turning on his heel and running out of the room. Zane followed close behind him. And, as he watched Lloyd's golden blonde hair bobbing in time with his steps, he was grateful that, even if Echo was gone forever, that he still had one little brother that was definitely worth fighting for.

* * *

**And that concludes Five Times Zane Was a Nurse ;-;**

**I have to say, I had a lot of fun exploring Zane's character with these chapters, and I really hope I did our resident nindroid justice ;D And, I hope I can do the same with Nya! :D**

**Survey question: Which chapter was your favorite?**

**Anyway, I really hope you liked this story, and I appreciate each and every one of you who took the time to read my little story :D I hope I'll talk to all of you again really soon! :D**

**I love you! :D**


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